


Slayers and Walkers

by Alraune1928



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2018-08-20 10:34:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 90,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8245885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alraune1928/pseuds/Alraune1928
Summary: They survived the First only to find the dead are walking.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, but I suck at titles and summeries. This is my very first Buffy and TWD fanfic, also my first ever crossover. I havn't written anything in ages and English is not my first language, so I'm a bit rusty. I try to ease myself into it, so for now it's just Buffy and company; TWD characters will start to appear in later chapters. There are some characters on both shows that I like very much and I couldn't deal with them dying. This fic is my way of coping...  
> Updates will be probably slow since I have a very busy work shedule, but I will do my best.

The overpowering smell of blood hit Buffy as soon as she stepped inside the bus. Xander was sitting on the floor, sobbing incoherently, while he clutched Anya in his arms. Next to him kneeled Andrew, who, with tears running down his face, pressed his blood-soaked t-shirt to Anya's stomach. The woman had her eyes closed and her breath came in short, raspy gasps. No one moved, but then Willow got up from her seat next to Kennedy on unsteady feet. Kneeling down next to Andrew, she moved his hands aside and spread her fingers over the gaping wound. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and started to murmur. Ever so slowly the bleeding stopped. The jagged edges of the gash started to twitch and move. Anya's body went rigid and the attempted to twist away, but Xander tightened his hold and Andrew grabbed her legs, to keep her from moving. Finally the wound was closed, with not even a scar and Anya's breathing was calm and steady. Having used up all her strength, Willow fell back against the seat occupied byVi.

"She will be ok. I couldn't replace all the blood she has lost, so she will be pretty weak for a while, but she will make it." she whispered. Xander reached for Willow's hand and squeezed it in a silent Thank you.

Buffy went outside again and walked up right to the edge of the crater that used to be Sunnydale. She should be happy for Xander and Anya, but she just felt numb. She stared down until she felt a hand on her back; it was Giles and finally the tears came.

"He's gone Giles. I told him that I love him and he didn't believe me. I hurt him so many times that he couldn't believe it." Buffy choked out as her watcher held her in his arms. Giles said nothing, just held her and stroked her hair.

Meanwhile, inside the bus, everyone had started to move again. Anya was laid on the bench in the back. Faith, from her place in the front, let her gaze sweep over the group. Xander and Anya; Willow, who had passes out after the healing spell, Dawn and Andrew. She was surprised that he not only made it, but that he had been also capable of dragging the wounded Anya from the crumbling building of the high school. There was more to the irritating little nerd than met the eye. Robin was still in the driver’s seat, but he seemed to be ok. Then there were the Potentials – no, the Slayers, she corrected herself. Kennedy, Rona, Vi, Caridad, Shannon…, but they had lost some of them in the fight. Amanda, Jessica, the girl with the long blond hair… Faith felt a stab of guilt, because she couldn’t even remember the girl’s name. Andrew, who had been unusually quiet and staring out of the window, suddenly spoke up.

"Something's wrong."A few of the girls snorted.

"You`re stating the obvious." Faith said, rolling her eyes.

"No wait," Andrew continued," it's too quiet. Think about it: A whole town just packing up and leaving and nobody come to investigate?"

Faith shrugged. "Sunnydale syndrome, I guess."

"But think about it; that makes it even stranger. There are geological survey labs all over California and something like this must have left a major beep on their radar. So where is everyone? By now the Red Cross, National Guard or whatever they send out when there is a disaster should have arrived, especially if no one noticed that the town was already deserted. Not to mention that this place should be crawling with news crews by now. “Town swallowed by sinkhole” would be a great headline." "Right," Kennedy exclaimed, getting up," so we better get a move on. We could reach LA by nightfall and then..."

Faith grabbed her arm. "Wait. Look around. We are tiered and injured, Willow is still out cold and Anya nearly died! Nobody here is in any shape for a trip to LA right now. There is an abandoned motel up by the old interstate. I suggest we hole up there for the night. We get some rest and if Andrew is right and the government shows up we need to think up a good story for them.” With a pout, Kennedy slumped back into her seat, annoyance evident on her face. Faith didn’t care. She knew Buffy needed some time to grieve. She would miss Spike too, but at least he had gone out in a blaze of glory, saving all of their asses down in that hellhole. Finally Buffy and Giles came back, wordlessly sitting down. Buffy’s eyes were red and puffy. Robin started up the bus.

“Everyone hold tight, it’s going to be bumpy until we reach the road. Faith, I could use some help with directions”, he called back over his shoulder. Faith went to the front, holding on to the back of the driver’s seat as the school bus started to lurch forward in a cloud of dust. They soon reached the interstate, but there where huge rocks at the roadside.

“We can’t get over these with the bus.” Robin said. “Turn left; the terrain should even out in a bit.” Faith explained. Robin nodded. The bus rumpled along the side of the road, bumping over holes and rocks. Suddenly Robin slammed his foot on the break.

“What the hell?” They had reached the spot Faith had indicated, but several cars were blocking the road. “What happened here?” “Don’t know”, Faith answered,” maybe a crash or someone’s car broke down.” Robin raised his eyebrows. 

“And the cars got just left here, blocking the road?”

“People were anxious to leave, so they just didn’t bother?” Faith shrugged. “Most people headed for the highway to LA, so I guess Sunnydale PD didn’t make it a priority to get the road cleared. Let’s have a look and clear the way. Kennedy, Vi; you are with me!” she called.

As they stepped outside, Faith noticed with satisfaction that both girls had grabbed their weapons without second thought; Kennedy carrying an ax and Vi clutching a sword. Slowly they made their way towards the cars. There were five of them. Two of them had crashed into each other, by the looks of the dents in the hood and back, but the others seemed to be undamaged. Carefully, the girls moved closer. All cars had been loaded with stuff to full capacity. The doors were open on all of them, but no sign of people.

“Hey, look at this!” Vi exclaimed. She had rounded a car and was pointing at the door on the driver’s side. There was a bloody handprint. They checked the other cars and found blood splatters both inside and outside.

“This is creepy.” Vi said. “What happened to those people? Where are they?”

“Maybe the Turok-Han got hungry, and with all the humans leaving town they decided to move out a bit to grab a snack.” Faith suggested.

“But where are the bodies?” Kennedy wondered, looking around.

“I don’t know, maybe they don’t just drain people, like normal vamps do, maybe they eat them completely?” Faith mused. “I mean, we never had time to study their eating habits and I guess we will never know. But we sure need to get the road cleared. Just push the cars out of the way.”

“Push?” Vi said in disbelief and looked at her hands.

Faith nearly laughed. The girl still had no idea what she could do, now that she had the full slayer package. “Yes, push. See?”

Faith turned and gave the car right next to her a good shove, causing it to slide right off the road.

Vi put her hands gingerly on a car and gave it a slight push. Her eyes grew wide as it moved easily.

Faith grinned. “Go on Supergirl.”

Together, the three of them had cleared the road in no time and they were on their way. Faith was standing next to Robin, giving directions.

“See that sharp turn ahead? The motel should come up on the right side behind it.”

As the building came into view, Robin slowed down the bus until it came to a full stop. Andrew had been right. Something was wrong. The motel wasn’t abandoned at all. The main building was surrounded by some kind of metal barricade, with two military jeeps parked outside the fencing. A bit further away sat the scorched skeleton of a helicopter.

“Damn, this place looks like a war zone!” Robin exclaimed.

“Where are we?” Willow asked drowsily. Apparently the witch had regained consciousness, but nobody answered her. They all squinted through the dusty windows. Robin put the bus back into drive and they inched closer, stopping again next to one of the jeeps, but he kept the motor running. Buffy had joined Faith and Robin at the front. There was a small gape in the fencing, partially blocked by an overturned jeep.

“This has nothing to do with the Turok-Han; they would never have gone this far away from the town. After all, the First did send them to kill us, not to take a stroll through the neighborhood.” Faith stated.

“I get the feeling we missed something big.” Buffy said, speaking for the first time since they left Sunnydale. “There’s something about this place that makes my spidy-sense tingle like crazy”

As if on cue, the noise started. Some kind of groaning and shuffling. At first it was so faint, only those with slayer hearing registered it, but it grew steadily louder. Then the first shape appeared from the opening, followed closely by another one. And another one. They might have been human once, but it was clear that they weren’t any longer. Some were dressed in military uniforms, others wore civilian clothes. Buffy thought she even spotted the tattered remains of a lab coat on one of the things. They moved slow and awkwardly, but with single-minded determination towards the school bus. Everyone was frozen in surprise, until Andrew’s high pitched scream broke the silence.

“Zombies!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stupid me just realized I forgot to post a part of the first chapter. Since I'm still learning my way around here, I will not post an edited chapter one, but will make it chapter two. Xander's line (That's my girl...) is taken from the Buffy final; I just had to quote it ;)  
> Thanks to everyone reading this story!

Kennedy was the first to react. She stalked to the door, grabbing the scythe on the way and jumped outside, right in the middle of the advancing dead. With machine like precision she took them down one by one and strolled back to the bus.

“All clear!” she announced casually.

“Kennedy, you can’t just run off on your own!” Faith admonished the girl. Buffy just glared, looking pointedly at the scythe. Kennedy handed the weapon over. Buffy turned to the group.

“Faith, Kennedy and I will check this place out, everyone else stays here.”

They disappeared through the gap in the barricade. The rest of the group waited in nervous silence. Willow joined Giles, her eyes darting around.

“Giles?” she asked in a small voice. “Is this my fault?”

Giles frowned. “Your fault?”

“You know the spell, maybe I messed it up, or, this is the consequence. Maybe I upset the balance and now we are stuck in …Zombieworld. Maybe I brought on the end of the world…” Willow trailed off.

“No. Whatever happened here had nothing to do with your spell.”

“How can you be so sure? I’ve never done anything like that and I messed up before. Now that I think of it; the only spells I’ve ever done without anything going wrong were dark magic…maybe I can only do dark magic, maybe the coven was wrong and I’m not ready…”

“Willow,” Giles interrupted her panicked outburst,” look around you. You did that spell just a few hours ago. Whatever turned these soldiers into Zombies, and I use the term Zombie loosely here, happened probably days ago.”

“You really think it wasn’t me?”

“No.” Giles smiled. “I have absolute trust in your abilities.”

Willow returned his smile weakly. “Then at least one of us has, but still, I really hope there is no more magic needed, at least not any time soon.”

“I’m beginning to fear that this mess was not caused by magic.” Giles said.

“You don’t think that this was some kind of back-up plan by the First?”

Giles shook his head. “I don’t think the First has back-up plans. We surprised it and beat it, but it will never be truly gone. It will try again someday, maybe in a few thousand years or so, but right now, I think it will just sit back and have a good laugh at our expense.”

They both looked up as part of the barricade moved; widening the gap and the three slayers reappeared. Kennedy and Faith pushed the overturned jeep out of the way, while Buffy came over.

“Ok, we found two more undead soldiers. Word of advice; decapitation does not work, they are still trying to bite you. You have to go for the brain.” Buffy said. “Let’s bring the bus in and close the fence again.”

Dawn and Vi had volunteered to stay with Anya, while the rest of the group entered the building. They moved from the small reception area into the main part of the house, carful to not step on the remains of the zombie lying there. It had been decapitated, the head impaled by a stake.

“Definitely military,” Xander commented. There were crates and large plastic boxes staked along the walls in what probably had once been a living room. Cots were set up, and canvas bags with a camouflage print sat on some of them. Through an open door more cots and boxes were visible in an adjoining room. Willow, Giles and Andrew made a beeline for the large table in the center, which was covered in papers, and folders. There was even a laptop.

“Someone get Anya and the others in. I want you to go through all this stuff; priority being food and flashlights,” Faith ordered. “Make sure that barricade is closed and secure all doors and windows. Robin and I will set up a schedule for watch duty; I don’t wanna have any nasties sneak up on us.”

Xander was about to get Anya, when he was called back by Giles.

“Xander, I might need a bit of help here; military jargon is not exactly my strongest forte…”

Reluctantly Xander joined Giles in his research, but kept glancing up, as Caridad carried Anya inside, closely followed by Vi and Dawn. The former demon was still unconscious. They settled her on one of the cots and Dawn stayed by her side, while Vi joined the search for useful things.

“Does this count as food?” Meredith asked, holding up a foil bag.

Xander looked up. “Yep; combat rations, oh joy!”

Willow was hunched over the laptop, typing away with her face scrunched up in concentration. Suddenly there was a beeping noise, which made Giles jump and back away from the table.

“Is there some kind of self-destruction mechanism?” he asked, eying the laptop.

“No, that’s just a warning that the battery is getting low…” Willow answered without looking up. “Andrew, ever cracked something encrypted?”

Andrew seemed to grow several inches as he joined Willow in front of the screen. The witch continued her furious typing, while Andrew whispered suggestions. The continued beeping had everyone on edge and most girls gathered around the table.

Vi had wandered off into one of the smaller rooms and soon returned with a large plastic box emblazoned with a red cross.

“There’s a ton of medical stuff in here!” She frowned as she dug a plastic bag filled with clear liquid from the box. “What’s this?” She passed it on to Dawn, who studied the label.

“Oh, ringer solution! I know this stuff; the EMT’s on ER always gave it to the patients they brought in! We could hook Anya up with one of those. We can’t give her a transfusion to make up for the blood loss, but this would at least replace the fluid in her system!” Dawn was nearly vibrating with excitement. “Right Giles?”

“Eh, yes indeed,” Giles answered, not looking up from the folder he was studying.

“You know how to do this?” Vi asked.

“Hey, I’ve watched every episode of ER; well, at least those with Georg Clooney,” Dawn answered. “I think I’ll manage.”

She started to search around until she found a metal pole and secured it at the head of Anya’s cot as a make-shift iv-stand. But Dawn’s confidence seemed to waver as she sifted through the contents of the medical box. She picked up a small package, read the labeling, looked at Anya and then tossed it back.

“Ok, I kind of missed the part about getting the needle in the patient,” she confessed.

Chao-Ahn had been watching them with mounting irritation. Now she kneeled next to Dawn and gathered an armful of supplies. She muttered something in Cantonese as she moved to Anya and set to work, swiftly tying a tourniquet around the woman’s arm. She sprayed some disinfectant on and, after some brief feeling around, popped a needle in. She secured it with some tape, connected the iv and set it to a slow, steady drip. 

“Wow!” Dawn was thoroughly impressed.

Chao-Ahn just looked at her with an expression of “Duh, like this is hard” on her face.

“Ha, got you!” Willow shouted triumphantly.

Pretty much everyone crowded in front of the laptop screen and tried to read the file Willow and Andrew managed to decrypt. Willow scrolled through the file rather quickly; since the laptop’s continued beeping reminded her that they could lose power any second now. The document was pretty large and the screen went blank before they made it even halfway through.

“That’s it”, Willow said, closing the laptop. “This thing is dead as long as we don’t find a way to recharge it, but what I could read is wig-worthy enough.” She looked at Giles. “You were right; there is absolutely nothing supernatural about this mess; just plain old human stupidity.”

“Uhm, details please, Wills.” Buffy asked.

“Ok. The file was kinda like a summary of events and, no big surprise hear, this whole mess started years ago, right here in Sunnydale. Some military big-wig thought, hey screw all those international treaties; the Soviets are probably doing it anyway, so we should do some biological warfare research of our own. They build some super-secret lab right under the campus of Sunnydale U and…”

“The Initiative.” Buffy said tonelessly.

“Not exactly; they came later. Anyway; they started to mess around with all kinds of bacteria and stuff until one of the scientists had a brush with the Sunnydale nightlife. He wrote a report that ended up on the desk of one Professor Maggie Walsh and voila – the Initiative was born. So Team Virus was moved out and got a shiny new lab somewhere near Washington and the Initiative moved in. Then the Initiative went belly up and the Sunnydale lab was destroyed. Team Virus continued their work in the new location and managed to cook up the ultimate weapon; a virus that reanimated dead cells. It turns dead people into zombies and it’s super-contagious.”

Everyone sat in shocked silence as they considered the implications.

“And of course the virus got loose,” Xander picked up the story. “They tried to contain it; quarantine infected people, but their weapon was too effective once it entered the general population. According to these mission reports,” he motioned to the paperwork on the desk,” things went downhill pretty fast. People were trying to get out of the cities, refugee zones were established, only to be overrun; the military even went so far as to bomb major cities. Then some general remembered Sunnydale and the old lab. The virus guys had left part of their archive here when they moved out and they sent a team of Special Forces to locate it in the hope there was something they could use to stop the epidemic. And in the grand tradition of military operations on the Hellmouth everything went spectacularly wrong. They flew in with helicopters and tons of equipment and used this old building as their headquarters. Then a unit moved into town to locate a way to get into the old lab, landing them smack dab in the middle of the chaos that were the last days of Sunnydale. They came across some nasties, bringers from the description and people got killed. Their scientific adviser had the brilliant idea to bring back the bodies for observation. The bodies turned into what they called “Walkers”, more people got killed and the survivors aborted the mission and got the hell out of here.”

Faith let out a scream of frustration and punched the wall so hard, it left a hole.

“What? Don’t tell I’m the only one who feels royally screwed over? We nearly got our asses kicked down there; people lost their lives battling the First and for what? Fucking zombies?” 

“You know, it’s kind of ironic,” Dawn mused.” The Master, Angelus, Glory, hell, even the mother of all evil, the First; they all had a go at the world-endedge and in the end, humanity managed all by itself, no big nasty necessary.”

Meredith, at fourteen the youngest of the new slayers, raised a shaking hand.

“Ehm, did I get this right? We all have this virus thing and if we die we turn into one of those zombie things?”

Willow and Giles exchanged looks. There was no way of sugarcoating the facts.

“Yes, I fear that’s right,” Willow said. “Every person that dies turns into a walker.”

“Yeah,” Andrew elaborated,” they are not like the classic zombies, where the victim needs to be bitten by one to be infected.”

Xander started to shuffle through the folders. “Eh, I think I have some bad news on the biting thing…”

“Like we just had the good news?” Buffy muttered under her breath.

Xander found what he had been looking for and quickly skimmed over the page again.

“Yes, biting is really bad,” he explained. “The team’s science guy says here that if a person gets bitten, they will develop a high fever in a matter of hours and die of …eh, septic shock pretty soon afterwards. So, big no to the biting.”

Robin turned and addressed the group.

“And on this happy note and since its getting dark; I’ve got the watch schedule. Since everyone is tired, we’ll rotate every three hours. Meredith, Shannon, Caridad, Colleen and I will take first watch. I want someone as lookout on top of the bus; the others patrol the barricade, “he waved a piece of paper and pinned it on a nail sticking from the wall.”When the time is up, I want Meredith to go and wake the next shift. I suggest everyone else should try to get some sleep.”

As the first watch gathered their weapons, Anya woke up. She tried to sit up, groaning. Xander practically jumped across the table and engulfed her in a hug.

“Ahn, if you scare me like that again, I’ll kill you!” he said, his face buried in her hair.

“Xander, air!”

He reluctantly let her go, but kept his arm around her.

“So, I guess we won,” Anya stated, looking around. Her eyes fell on Andrew and she waved.

“Hi there! See, you didn’t die!”

“Yeah, but only because you jumped in front of me. You saved my life!”

“That’s my girl; always doing the stupid thing!” Xander declared mock-proudly.

“Hey!” Anya punched his arm. “And how come I didn’t die?”

“Eh, Andrew kind of rescued you,” Xander said sheepishly.

“Ha; so I did the smart thing. I saved Andrew, so he could save me.”

Nobody could argue with that.

“And by the way; if we did win, then why is there a rooting corpse in the hallway?” Anya asked, peering over Xander’s shoulder.

Buffy looked at Faith.

“Note to self: Don’t forget to include the part about body removal in future slaying lessons.”

Faith went and moved the body outside. She removed the stake from the head and simply kicked it out of the front door.

“Hey, watch the flying body parts!” Colleen’s angry voice could be heard from outside.

Nobody in the room followed Robin’s suggestion of sleeping. Xander brought Anya up to date with events. She took the news surprisingly well, her only comment being “I always knew humans were exceptionally stupid!”

Chao-Ahn checked Anya’s IV and replaced the empty bag with a fresh one. Dawn watched her thoughtfully for a moment and then sidled up to Giles, who was still studying papers.

“Giles, you still got that Cantonese for Dummies dictionary?”

Giles patted himself down and found the small book in the back pocket of his pants.

“Geez, Giles; you carried a dictionary into battle? Can I have it?”

Giles handed it over, asking:”Why do you need it?”

“I’m taking over Chao-Ahn’s English lessons,” Dawn answered. “Because, honestly, you may be a genius with dead languages, but with the living, not so much.”

“This coming from a girl who massacres the English language on a regular basis,” Giles commented, returning his attention to his research.

Dawn bounded over to the Asian girl and dragged her off to a cot. Soon they were bent over the dictionary, using one of the flashlights for illumination as it was getting dark. Some of the girls had decided to try the combat rations and sat on the floor, chewing on protein bars with various degrees of disgust. Others continued to search the equipment left behind by the military, while Giles, Willow and Andrew continued to read the reports and files. Faith had found a place on the floor, her back leaning against the wall and watched Buffy, who paced the length of the room.

“Yo, B, relax. What’s with the pacing?”

Buffy flopped down next to her sister slayer.

“You really have to ask? We are in the middle of nowhere, with limited supplies in the middle of a major zombie apocalypse. There might be the possibility that we are the last surviving humans on earth and we don’t have a plan. We need a plan! We can’t stay here, but where should we go?” 

“You breaking down from exhaustion will so not help with the situation…”

“Jackpot!”

Faith’s words were interrupted by Kennedy’s shout. The girl had just opened yet another crate. Kennedy used her flashlight, so everyone could see what she was holding up. A gun. A semi-automatic pistol, to be precise. Buffy heard Willow’s sharp intake of breath.

“Team Slayer one, Zombies zero!” Kennedy announced excitedly.

Buffy nearly screamed the word NO! and could hear several people around the room repeat it.

“Slayers don’t use firearms!” Giles stated in full watcher mode. “It’s against tradition.”

“Well, I say, screw tradition, we should upgrade from Middle Ages to 21st century.”

“These reports say that the walkers are still able to hear; gunfire would attract them.” Willow nearly choked on the word “gunfire”.

“Who cares? You’ve all seen how slow they are; we could easily pick them off from a safe distance.”

Buffy couldn’t belief it. Was this girl really too self-centered to notice how upset Willow, her supposed girlfriend, was about this? She had seen at least two girls, who had found guns during their initial search. Both had taken a look and then moved on to the next box, not giving them a second glance. Once again, Kennedy had to make things difficult.

“Nobody here knows how to use a gun. They need to be cleaned, maintained and they need ammunition. We always used crossbows for long distance; they work and we know how to use them,” Buffy said.

“I know how to handle guns; I could teach everyone.” Kennedy barreled on, completely undeterred.

“In my opinion guns are the worst weapons to use against zombies.” Andrews voice said from somewhere in the dark room.

“And since when are you an expert in zombies?” Kennedy snapped.

“Actually ever since I had to watch every zombie movie in existence with my older brother. Tucker was really into zombies,” he mused. “Anyway, you said zombies were slow. You’re right; but they have this really bad habit of forming large groups. Every movie had at least one scene where some minor character had a gun and ended up being swarmed. At that point they ran out of bullets, and from the screaming and icky sound effects I guess they died. I didn’t see it, since I always had my eyes closed …”

“While I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Andrew, I think he summed up my own concerns in this matter quite nicely,” Giles said.

Faith spoke up, before Kennedy had a chance to say another word.

“We all agreed on B being boss, plus Giles is the only surviving watcher we have, so when he says no, it means no. So, put the artillery away and go to bed; that goes for everyone; the show’s over, get some shut-eye”

Kennedy closed the crate and got up.

“I need some fresh air,” she declared, grabbed her flashlight and stormed out.

In the dark, Buffy felt her way along the table until she reached Willow. She could feel her trembling and put a comforting hand on her arm.

“You ok, Wills?”

“Yeah, kind of. You know, ever since Tara guns kinda freak me out. Buffy?”

“Hm?”

“It’s about Kennedy… I know, I’m her girlfriend, but somehow I kinnda never noticed how…”

Buffy tried to appear unperturbed and patted her friend’s arm.

“Don’t worry; she can sometimes be a bit on the bratty side, but she’ll come around.”


	3. Chapter 3

Buffy opened her eyes. Dawn was kneeling next to the cot she had been sleeping on, bearing two mugs.

“Here,” she said, handing one mug to Buffy, “I would have preferred some double caramel mocha with whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkles right now, but at least its coffee. Andrew has set up some kind of campfire kitchen outside and is trying to turn this commando stuff into something that resembles breakfast.”

Buffy sat up and took a sip of her coffee. Xander and Anya were sitting next to each other on the cot next to hers, eating some grayish mash out of foil packages.

“Morning Buff,” Xander greeted her. “Instant oatmeal,” he explained, raising the foil pouch, “surprisingly good, considering the way it looks. If you want some, I would hurry up, you know, with the way the girls are when it comes to food.”

“No thanks, I’ll think I’m not in the mood for gray slob right now.”

Dawn grinned and handed her a small bag of dried raisins.

“So, what’s the plan?” she asked, taking a seat next to her sister.

Right, the plan. Buffy had wracked her brain all night, but she still hadn’t managed to come up with something. Way to go, Buffy, she thought; excellent leadership skills.

“To be honest; I don’t have one,” she said.

Instantly all talking stopped and the room fell silent.

With a sigh, Buffy got up.

“Yes, you heard it right. I am completely clueless and plan-less.”

“I thought we would go to LA,” Caridad chimed in.

“Yes, that was the original plan; but by now LA must have turned into Zombiepalooza and we don’t wanna go there. In fact, I suggest we stay away from all the big cities.”

“But Angel and his people might still be in LA; we could try to contact…” Giles started.

“Angel!” Buffy hissed, her voice dripping with venom. “Angel is the last person on earth I want to contact right now; alive or un-living! The nerve of that vampire! He was here! He was here right before our battle with the First and he did not mention anything about the zombie situation!”

Giles tried to reason.

“Maybe he didn’t want to distract you by...”

Buffy’s voice climbed several octaves, making him wince.

“Distract us? What did he expect; that we sit back and let the First win, because, you know, why bother, the world has gone to hell anyway? I mean, it was so typical; he dropped in uninvited, handed me that piece of jewelry, the one that killed Spike; gave some cryptic non-information and even dared to put on the jealous boyfriend act!”

“You know,” Anya said thoughtfully,” this whole zombie thing is bad, but it’s nothing compared to what would have happened if the First won.”

“What would have happened?” Dawn asked.

“Pretty much like before the first slayer was called. Demons everywhere and humans at the bottom of the food chain.”

“Ouch.”

Buffy had calmed down somewhat after her rant. She turned to Anya, a terrible idea forming in her brain.

“Uhm, Anya; now that you mention demons…what happened to them? We know humans get turned into zombies, but what about demons? Because I’m so not looking forward to fighting the zombie version of a Fyarl.”

“Oh, they are probably gone by now,” Anya answered with a casual shrug.

“Gone?” Giles sputtered and started to clean his glasses.

“Yeah, I’m mean; they are not stupid; ok some might be… Well, the families and clans living in peaceful co-existence with humans probably packed up and hopped dimensions as soon as they noticed the First stirring up trouble. The ones who are into the whole chaos and apocalypse thing might have stuck around a bit longer, to enjoy the show. And with most of the human population gone, there is not much to stick around for. No demon in their right mind would try to feed on zombies. So vamps would be gone too. Ok, a few stupid fledges might have stayed, but those are either dead or in hibernation by now.”

Giles frowned.

“What do you mean by hibernation?”

“Well,” Anya explained,” since technically vampires are already dead, they can’t starve. But if they can’t feed they get crazy from the bloodlust after a while. That’s when a lot of them get themselves dusted by accident; you know forgetting about staying out of the sun and such. The lucky ones find a secure hiding place and hibernate. They just fall asleep and stay that way until someone gives them blood.”

Andrew raised his hand.

“Anya, you mentioned going to another dimension. Could we try that?”

Anya shook her head.

“Pretty impossible. Willow might be able to pull it off, but it is very complicated. We would need some very old demonic spell books to work from and the slightest mistake could have disastrous consequences.”

“Anya is right,” Willow agreed,” I would never try something on this scale. Messing around with dimensions is one of the most dangerous kinds of magic. It could get us all killed, or worse.” She shuddered at the memory of Vamp Willow. 

“Ok,” Robin tried to get the discussion back on topic,” we’ve established that demons are gone and LA is not an option. Any other suggestions?”

“The mall,” Dawn volunteered.

Robin stared like she had grown a second head.

“Relax, I’m not talking about going on a shopping spree; I’m talking about the new Sunnydale mall,” Dawn elaborated. Noticing the blank stares all around her she sighed.

“New mall in Sunnydale; front page news; number one topic in school for weeks?”

“Wait, I know!” Anya said. “There was something in the Business Owners Association newsletter last year; new commercial development outside the city limits and a new mall was the first project.”

“Business Owners Association?” Giles asked with raised eyebrows.

“Well, I had to watch the competition; some upstart could have tried to lure my costumers away.”

“Anyway,” Dawn continued, “the grand opening was supposed to be somewhere around the time the mass exodus started, so maybe it never opened. And while there was some looting, I don’t think anyone remembered or bothered; and since it was build outside Sunnydale, it could have escaped the hole.”

Xander looked up.

“Now it makes sense; in a good way. While I was in hospital a guy from work visited and he kept whining about a delay on our project,” he explained. “Something about a crew held up on another project; a shopping center where they had to install generators at the last minute. You know, to compensate for all the power outages.”

A smile spread over Buffy’s face.

“A fully stocked, untouched mall complete with generators; you gotta love the weirdness that was Sunnydale,” she said. “Faith, you up for a little scouting mission?”

“Betcha!”

“Then we have a plan. Faith will pick a team and scout the place; if the coast is clear, we’ll move there.”

“Veto!” Andrew cried. “Has none of you seen Dawn of the Dead? Malls are bad, both in the original and in the remake. They are full of zombies and lots of people die there.”

“Why Andrew, “Faith asked, smiling sweetly, “are you offering to tag along?”

“Eh, no. Just thought I should mention it.”

“Ok, so let’s move it. Kennedy, Vi, Rona and Dawn, you’re with me!”

Buffy opened her mouth to protest, but quickly closed it again. She would not try to baby Dawn – again. She was nearly seventeen and had proved herself to be a capable fighter.

Dawn had hesitated, looking at Buffy uncertainly.

“Come on D.; move your ass!” Faith hollered.

Dawn grabbed her crossbow and hurried to catch up with her team.

 

Faith decided to use one of the army jeeps and, after checking the fuel gauge, hopped into the back.

“Rona, you’re driving,” she called.

“Faith, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I just started driver’s ed and don’t have a license…” the girl protested,

“Are you scared Officer Zombie might pull you over and give you a ticket? Don’t worry; these army rides are pretty sturdy and you all have to learn how to drive.”

Kennedy took the passenger seat and Vi and Dawn crowded in with Faith. Rona was nervous at first and her driving was pretty jerky, but soon they cruised along the old interstate smoothly.

“See, it’s easy,” Faith said. “Shame there’s no radio.” She leaned back, propping her feet up and fished a map from the pocket of her jacket.

“Dawn, can you show me where we have to go?”

Dawn looked at the map. She found the line that indicated the Sunnydale city limit and, after a bit of searching located the high school. She pointed it out to Faith.

“See this road, coming up behind the school? That’s the one we have to find; it’s the one which was supposed to connect the town with the new development. They finished it during the first few weeks of school; I could see it from the window during French.”

“You took French?”

“Yep, you may have noticed; I’m pretty good with languages.”

“Hey, Ro! We have to leave the interstate and go off road; think you can do that?” Faith asked.

“Five by five!” Rona answered and the jeep veered sharply of the road.

“Ok, we need to move along the crater until we reach the road to the mall. And please try not to drive us over the fucking edge.”

The mall came into view even before they reached the road, as it was situated in a hilly area above the town. As they got closer, Faith spotted a lone gas station not far from the crater and told Rona to park the jeep there. She had found binoculars in the jeep and climbed the roof of the gas station to take a closer look. She didn’t like what she saw.

“Not good,” she told the rest of the group as she jumped down from the roof. “I could see walkers doin’ the zombie shuffle in the parking lot. We leave the jeep here and walk the rest of the way. There’s a fence around the parking lot and some kind of loading bay on the right side of the building. I could see some trucks and one of them is pretty close to the fence there. Maybe we can go over and on top of it unnoticed. ”

They walked up the road with Faith in the lead and Kennedy bringing up the rear. When they were still a considerable distance away from the building, Faith motioned them to turn right. They followed the chain link fence until they found the truck. At Faith’s signal, the group stopped while she crept closer. She listened intensely for a few minutes, and then signaled the other girls to come up. Faith was the first to climb over the fence and on top of the truck. Rona and Vi went next, helping Dawn up, and Kennedy went last. They lay on their stomachs and looked around, Faith using the binoculars again.

Another horde of zombies was wandering aimlessly in circles to their left, close to the ones in the front parking lot. A few stragglers were visible in the loading bay area. There were two trucks, apart from the one they were hiding on, and a couple of delivery vans parked. The large metal doors leading inside the building were closed and a few boxes and crates were piled up near them. A noise from the inside of the truck made Dawn nearly jump. Faith felt Kennedy at her side tense up and prepare to rise. She quickly put her hand on the girl’s arm and shook her head, instead motioning to leave the way they had come. They jumped down and continued along the fencing. A short distance away was a gate, closed and secured with a heavy chain and a padlock. From there another road led off and disappeared further up into the hills. At the back of the mall was another, smaller parking lot; possibly for employees. No cars and, thankfully, no zombies. The girls continued their way around until they reached the front entrance again and then made their way back to the jeep.

“So, what do you think?” Faith asked her team, once they had reached the gas station.

“Why did they all gather there?” Rona wondered.

“Maybe it’s instinct. Like bored, hungry, let’s go to the mall?” Dawn suggested.

“Wanna go back and ask?” Faith grinned.

“Yes,” Kennedy answered. “Well not to ask; but we could totally slay them. There were only like what; twenty or thirty?”

“You forget the fifty from the front, plus there were more we couldn’t see. At least one was inside the truck,” Faith said. “We’re here to scout, not to slay.”

“You think there are more inside? All entrances are closed and the shutters down. No windows on the ground floor, not even display windows. No way for them to get inside the building:”

Faith nodded.

“Good catch. The only windows are at the top floor and there seem to be a few skylights, but they cannot be reached from the ground. So, unless someone was hiding in there and died, the place should be walker-free. “

They decided to check the gas station before they headed back to camp. The shelves were still filled with stuff and Dawn, Vi, Rona and Kennedy descended with loud squeals on the assorted candy bars and bags of chips. Faith just grabbed a few packs of cigarettes and tossed them in the jeep. While the girls happily looted the shop she checked the gas pumps. They didn’t work without electricity and Faith thought they needed to figure out how to siphon gas soon, or they would have to walk. She strolled up to the edge of the sinkhole and peered down. To her surprise, a lake had formed at the bottom. She returned to the jeep, just as Dawn was throwing a plastic bag filled with chocolate bars on the backseat.

“Hey, D; check this out!” she called. “Sunnydale has turned into Lake Sunnydale!”

Dawn frowned.

“We are pretty close to the coast and Sunnydale had a harbor; maybe it’s the ocean. We could drive up to Kingmann’s Bluff and have a look,” she suggested.

“Any objections to taking the scenic route before we return?” Faith asked, when the rest of the group joined them and got into the driver’s seat. The others squeezed in amid the bags filled with junk food.

Faith drove slowly along the edge of the sinkhole, keeping a careful distance, as the terrain got more uneven. Dawn, who was sitting on the passenger side this time, squinted in the sunlight. For a moment she thought something was moving ahead. Walker? She rummaged around for the binoculars and looked again.

“Faith, stop! It’s Spike!” she screamed, grabbing Faith’s arm. As soon as Faith had stopped the jeep, Dawn jumped out, not bothering to take a weapon.

“Shit!” Faith hissed, grabbed Dawn’s crossbow and followed her. Dawn was fast, but Faith easily caught up with her and gripped her shirt.

“Dawn, wait!”

“But it’s Spike; he’s alive…” The words died of when she got her first real look at him.

Spike was huddled on the ground. He was missing his duster, his clothes torn and covered with dirt and blood. And he was in bright sunlight.

“Faith; the sun; why can he be in the sun without…”

At the sound of Dawn’s voice, Spike raised his head and snarled. He was in game face, his eyes completely swollen shut and his face covered in blisters. The same blisters covered his arms and they were oozing reddish, watery liquid. He tried to get up, but fell down again instantly, shaking. A scorch mark covered his chest.

“Spike, what happened…?” Dawn tried to take a step towards him, but Faith held her back again.

“Carful, D; he doesn’t seem to recognize us:”

Vi and Kennedy ran up behind them and stopped dead at the sight of the growling vampire.

“Oh my God,” Vi whispered,” he’s gone mad.”

“We have to do something,” Dawn said. “We have to take him back to camp.”

“I don’t think that’s save,” Kennedy answered. “Aside from being injured, he’s probably starved.”

Faith took action. She delivered a right hook to Spike, knocking him unconscious.

“Now we need to hurry up and get back before he wakes up again.”

 

Back at the old motel everyone was busy. Those not on watch duty went through the army stuff again and tried to figure out what to pack and take along if they moved. They gathered food, medical supplies and blankets. They would leave the weapons behind, except for some combat knives they had found. Willow, Giles and Andrew were still pouring over the files and reports. They would take them too, along with the laptop. If the mall had indeed generators they might recharge it and decrypt more of its contents.

Meredith stuck her head in.

“They’re back!”

Only seconds later they could hear Faith’s voice.

“Careful now! Rona, get his legs!”

There was a collective gasp as they carried the unconscious vampire in. Buffy looked like she was about to faint.

“Put him on a cot”, Faith ordered,” and we need something to tie him down, just in case.”

“Where… I thought he was dead…” Buffy stammered.

Faith shrugged. “No idea how he got out in one piece. We found him at the edge of the crater, near the high school. He’s beat up pretty bad; wounds all over, not to mention part of his chest is burned to a crisp.”

Rona had ripped a blanket into stripes and started to tie Spike’s legs to the cot, passing the rest on to Faith, who tied his arms.

“He tried to attack us, emphasis on tried, because it was all snarls and no bite. Think he didn’t recognize us,” Faith continued.

Giles watched with growing alarm.

“Do you think he’s posing a thread?”

Faith shook her head.

“No, he’s weak as a kitten. I knocked him out easily, so there’s no chance he could break out of these ties.”

Giles kneeled down next to the cot and started to examine the vampire.

“You found him outside?” he asked in disbelief.

“In the sun,” Dawn emphasized as she stood next to Faith.

“Fascinating,” Giles muttered and continued his examination. “Dear Lord!”

He pointed at Spike’s neck. There was a faint glint visible from underneath the burned and bloodied skin.

“That Amulet has melted into his skin!”

Willow joined him and took a look.

“You think that’s what’s making him sun proof? Like the Gem of Amara?”

“It’s a possibility. Too bad we never got a chance to find out more about it; who knows what else it can do?” Giles wondered.

“What are we going to do about him? He’s injured and probably starved. He needs blood,” Willow said.

Buffy opened her mouth to speak, but Dawn was faster.

“I’ll donate.”

She took an empty mug from the table and picked up one of the combat knives. Xander started to protest, but Dawn cut him off.

“Stop it, Xander. Yes; Spike killed, tortured and did a whole bunch of other nasty stuff. But he tried to change. He helped. He saved my life more than once and I owe him. We all do. He was the one who closed the Hellmouth for good. And on a totally egoistical note; I’m scared to death of theses walkers. There were about a hundred at the mall today and I nearly wet my pants. There might be even bigger groups out there and then it would be kind of nice to know we had another good fighter on our team.”

With that, she took the knife and made a deep cut in the palm of her left hand, holding it over the mug and letting the blood drip into it. Buffy extended her hand and Dawn passed on the knife. Faith was next, followed by Willow. To everyone’s surprise Andrew was the next volunteer. Anya picked up the knife, but it was snatched away by Vi.

“No offence, but you have barely enough for yourself right now”, she said as she made the cut to her hand.

Xander took a deep breath and offered to be next. In the end everyone in the group, even Giles and Robin had given some blood and the mug was half filled.

Buffy looked at it.

“It’s not much…”

“But it’s about eighty percent slayer blood,” Willow said. “That will be one hell of a kick start for his healing abilities.”

Buffy sat on the floor next to the cot and pried the unconscious vampire’s mouth open. She hesitated for a second, and then poured the blood down his throat. Willow had been right. The wounds on his arms started to close immediately and the swelling around his eyes seemed to go back. Buffy wished she could just sit there and watch him, but there were other things she had to take care of. She turned to Faith.

“So, what’s with the mall?”

“Place looks pretty good. Fence around the parking lot. The delivery zone has a gate, but that’s closed, so we just have to secure the main entrance. There are a couple of trucks; maybe we could move one to block it. The building looks secure, but like Dawn said, the parking lot is crawling with walkers.”

“So we have to deal with those first.” Buffy frowned. “I don’t really like it, but I think we need to go in there and clean them out before we move everyone. Giles, Anya, Xander, Andrew and Spike should stay here with one or two of the mini’s; maybe Vi and Rona.”

“And once we have the mall secured they can follow,” Faith finished. “That should work. And then?”

Buffy sighed. “Honestly? I have no idea. We might stay there for a bit, at least as long as the generator holds up, if there is really one, but then we should move on. We are too close to LA.”

“You think more zombies would come?” Faith asked.

“LA is big; there might be thousands and once they run out of food, they might wander off. Those army files said they have a tendency to form herds and if they move along the highway they end up right on our doorstep. I have to agree with Andrew; a mall sounds great in theory, but if we get surrounded we’re trapped. It’s better to keep moving.”

“So we start the clean up first thing tomorrow. We should pack up everything we need from here and load the bus,” Faith suggested.

“Hey guys,” Dawn came in and threw a plastic bag in their direction,” I brought sugary goodness. Thought you want some before the girls ate it all. How’s Spike?”

Buffy looked at him. “I think the blood’s working.”

“Good. “ Dawn straightened up. “Listen up everybody; we need to get this packing up thing going; no more messing around. I want all those boxes empty and by the door. Everything we take with us goes on the table; then into the empty boxes. If you’re not sure if we need it, ask Giles or Faith. Packed boxes go on the bus. Blankets and sleeping bags will be packed up in the morning. Come on, get moving!”

Buffy got up, but Dawn held her back.

“No, you stay with Spike.”

Reluctantly Buffy sat back down on the floor. A little voice inside her screamed that she had to do something useful, make sure everything was taken care of, but she ignored it. When Buffy had looked down into the sinkhole, she had, for a tiny moment, felt almost elated. It had been done; they had changed the rules of the game and the weight of the world was no longer her responsibility alone. Now, she could rest. The appearance of the walkers had crushed that hope. Again, everyone had looked at her, expecting her to make the decisions and it had terrified her. But now, she realized, things had changed. They still saw her as the leader, but unlike in Sunnydale, they now really worked as a group, with everyone taking responsibility instead of just sitting there and waiting for her to tell them what to do.

Anya tried to help with packing, but she soon felt dizzy and had to lie down again. Xander hovered around her like some overprotective mother hen, getting into everyone’s way and on their nerves, especially Anya’s. Finally, Faith had enough.

“Xander, could you check out the cars? We need both jeeps in working order tomorrow and I don’t want to end up trying to change a tire with a bunch of zombies trying to munch on me,” she asked.

The boxes were stored in the school bus, weapons were checked and the group was starting to settle down for the night with some food, most of them choosing what was left of the junk food from the gas station over the army stuff.

Buffy had spent the whole afternoon sitting next to Spike, keeping watch over the still unconscious vampire. He was starting to look better, even the large patch of blackened skin on his chest seemed to be getting smaller and at one point she had deemed it save to untie him. Buffy wanted nothing more than just crawl in next to him. She looked around the room. Most people were already lying on the cots or had settled down on the floor, wrapped in blankets and sleeping bags, but nobody was sleeping yet, since the girls were buzzing with nervous energy. In the end, she just didn’t care anymore, since most of the girls had probably noticed her slipping down to the basement on the night before their big battle anyway and joined Spike. She put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. If someone told her just a few months ago how comfortable and at peace she would feel sleeping next to Spike, she would have ripped that someone’s head off. Would he remember their last words when he woke up? They had hurt each other in the worst way on so many levels; they would probably go down in the history books as most dysfunctional relationship ever, if there were still people bothering to write history books. But despite all the abuse she had thrown at him, both physical and emotional, he had stubbornly stayed by her side. And despite what he had nearly done to her she had let him get close again during those last days in Sunnydale. Maybe they had a chance to make this work.

She woke sometime later when she felt him move.

“Spike?”

“Slayer?” His voice was rough. “Did we win?”

“Kinnda. How did you get out?”

“No fucking clue. One moment I was a bloody torch and then I drowned. Must have been the ocean pouring in when the town went down. I guess the Powers decided to keep me around bit longer”, he whispered. “Why did we “kinnda” win? Where are we?”

“Old motel outside Sunnydale”, Buffy answered.

“Not running straight to Captain Forehead?”

“World of no; not since he forgot to mention apocalypse part two. “

“WHAT?”

“Sheesh,” Buffy hissed, “you’ll wake the others. The short version: commando scientists created virus, virus escaped and turned people into flesh-eating zombies.”

“You’re fucking kidding me! Zombies?”

“Yep; in all their shuffling and groaning yuckiness. We are not even sure if there are any humans left. And Angel knew it and didn’t warn us.”

“Wanker. So, I guess, it’s no rest for the wicked?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I 'm not entirely satisfied with this one, but there are just a few things I have to take care of; characters to kill (or save), places to go... I hope the next chapter will turn out better.  
> Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

Meredith wrapped her jacket tightly around herself. In all those TV shows she used to watch California had been a place with palm trees, beaches and perpetual sunshine. She never would have guessed it could get this cold at night. Vowing to take along a blanket on her next watch, she quickly checked the time by shining her flashlight on her watch. Two more hours. Meredith continued to walk along the metal barricade surrounding the motel. She was supposed to cover the front, while Chao-Ahn patrolled the rear perimeter, with Andrew being look-out on top of the bus. Since things had stayed quiet, they had decided they could risk reducing the number of people on watch. When she heard someone approaching from behind, she whirled around and raised her crossbow.

“Easy!”

Meredith relaxed when she recognized Kennedy’s voice.

Switching on the flashlight again, she asked:”What are you doing out here? Didn’t you finish your shift already?”

“Yeah, but Buffy got a special mission for us,” Kennedy answered. Meredith noticed Chao-Ahn trailing behind her, carrying a sword and looking uncomfortable. “Spike’s loads better now, so they want us to move out of here asp. Buffy thinks there might be more zombies heading our way, so Chao-Ahn, you and I should go ahead and deal with the zombie infestation at the mall. The others will follow as soon as the sun goes up.”

“Just the three of us? Without Buffy or Faith?” Meredith was sure she had misheard.

“They are sure we can handle this. Come on, it’s not like there’s an army of them.”

Meredith was nervous, but then she made up her mind. She was a slayer now and she had gone up against worse when she was still a potential. Kennedy was right, compared to Caleb and the Bringers, not to mention the uebervamps; those zombies were kind of lame. As they headed for the entrance part of the barricade and, instead of moving it, simply climbed over, Meredith remembered something.

“We can’t just leave our post; who’s replacing us on watch?”

“Caridad and, I think, Shannon. I woke them and they should be out any minute”, Kennedy answered. She looked nervous as she started the jeep, but seemed to relax once they were on their way.

“So this is how we do it: The zombies are all contained inside the parking lot; there wasn’t a single one outside the fence. Once we get there, we park the jeep just outside the fence on the road and leave the headlights on. If the noise from the car isn’t enough to get their attention we might need to blow the horn or something to draw them. We spread out in front of the jeep, so we’ve got the light in the back and cover the whole entrance, fence to fence, and simply pick them off as they come, “Kennedy explained. “I’ll take them from the distance, you back me up and Chao-Ahn will be sweep and make sure none manage to sneak past us.”

“Did you bring a sword for me? ‘Cause if you take the crossbow, all I have left is a knife and a couple of stakes…”

Kennedy patted a bulge in her jacket.

“Keep your crossbow; I’ve got something better. I talked with Buffy and Faith about the guns again and since they are afraid we’ll soon have to deal with lager groups of walkers, they agreed to give it a try, but we need to convince Giles. That’s the reason we kinnda had to sneak out in the dark. Us, we can easily handle the zombies, even hand to hand, no problem, but someone like Dawn would be much safer if she’d use a gun.”

They reached the road leading up to the mall without incident and Kennedy stopped briefly to explain the plan to Chao-Ahn. The girl looked downright annoyed by the time she understood what they were about to do, but Meredith guessed she was simply feed up with constantly being out of the loop due to the language issue. Kennedy slowed the jeep to a snail’s pace as they approached their destination, so they could keep an eye out for stray zombies wandering the area. Once they had stopped just outside the parking lot entrance Kennedy kept the motor running for a bit. When she thought they had announced their arrival sufficiently, the group of girls got out and took up their position. The light provided by the car wasn’t perfect, but thankfully it was a clear night and the moonlight provided additional illumination. Meredith could hear the zombies groaning and she could see a few shuffling in their direction. As the first one came closer, Kennedy raised her gun and took aim. She got it straight in the head and the zombie went down. Meredith stood slightly behind her and let her gaze sweep over the parking lot, crossbow ready. Their strategy seemed to work. Kennedy continued to shoot, taking down several more, again with perfect shots to the head. Meredith registered some movement on her right side and caught a lone zombie approaching along the fence. She aimed and took it out. When she focused back on Kennedy she noticed that, while she still fired steadily, started to lose her aim. What began as a slow trickle of undead heading their way was turning into a constant stream. Kennedy had run out of bullets and reloaded swiftly with practiced ease, but it was enough for one zombie to almost reach her. Meredith got it with a bolt to the head. She could see Chao-Ahn taking another one out with her sword and noticed that they had been so focused on the approaching zombies that they had slowly drifted from their position, moving further into the parking lot. Already several of the undead had managed to get past them, blocking their escape route. Soon the girls were surrounded and were fighting back to back. Kennedy tried to reload again, but the zombies had gotten so close, she didn’t have a chance. Abandoning the gun, she took out a knife and started stabbing their heads.

“We have to get to the fence!” she called.

Meredith looked around. She had lost all sense of direction. The zombies seemed to be everywhere. Finally she could see the lights from the jeep again and tried to move towards it. Something grabbed her jacket and she screamed. The grip loosened immediately, as Chao-Ahn hacked of the zombies arm. Meredith hit it over the head with the crossbow and felt bits of brain spatter on her face as the skull turned into mush. Frantically she tried to spot Kennedy, but she couldn’t see her anymore. Chao-Ahn decapitated another zombie and suddenly they heard Kennedy scream. They still couldn’t see her amidst the mass of zombies; they could only hear that desperate scream that wouldn’t end. Meredith tried to go back, but Chao-Ahn grabbed her arm and shook her head. Together they somehow managed to almost reach the fence, when Chao-Ahn screamed in a mixture of pain and surprise. A zombie had managed to get its teeth into her shoulder. She fought it off and kicked it away, nearly losing her sword. Meredith grabbed it and started to hack away at the zombies, holding on to her fellow slayer and dragging her along. In the moonlight she could see a large dark shape and remembered the trucks Faith had mentioned. She tried to get there. By the time they reached it, Chao-Ahn was barely able climb it, her right arm almost useless and Meredith had to pull her up. Both girls collapsed on the top. Chao-Ahn was babbling incoherently. Meredith held her close and, in the dark, started to feel around her upper arm until she located the wound on her shoulder, oozing blood. It was more than just a bite; the zombie had ripped out a piece of flesh. Fighting down the bile rising in her throat, she pressed her bare hand on it, attempting to stop the bleeding. In the dark, she could hear the zombies gathering around the truck.

 

Robin had been the first to notice. Waking up, he had realized he had overslept and his turn on watch had already started. Outside, he found Andrew asleep on top of the school bus and no sign of Meredith or Chao-Ahn. When he roused the rest of the group, they discovered that Kennedy was gone too. Faith had immediately suggested the mall, since Kennedy had been so eager to take on the zombies there and she, Buffy, Giles and three slayers had squeezed into the remaining jeep. Buffy had left instructions with Robin to follow as soon as the sun was up. They reached the mall at daybreak. The parking lot was littered with bodies. Faith cursed under her breath when she saw the bullet holes in some of their heads. Then they found Kennedy, or what was left of her. Faith quickly called the three junior slayers away, to help her search for Chao-Ahn and Meredith. Buffy and Giles kept standing there, staring at the mutilated remains. As they took a step closer, Kennedy opened her eyes. They had turned a dirty white. The thing, that used to be a slayer, snapped its teeth and the one arm made clumsy grabbing motions in their direction.

“Oh God”, Buffy whispered. She removed a stake from the sleeve of her jacket, but then she just kept standing there. Giles gently took the stake from her hand and knelt down next to the body, carful to stay away from the arm.

“I’m sorry”, he said quietly as he stabbed the stake through the zombie’s eye.

The sound of fighting brought them out of their trance-like state and they rushed in the direction of the noise. As they rounded the corner of the building, they saw Faith raising the scythe, finishing off the last of the remaining undead.

“They’re up here!” Rona called down from the top of a truck. “Chao-Ahn is injured and Meredith…”

Buffy turned to Giles. “Try to find something to cover up Kennedy; I don’t want Willow to see her”, she said before she climbed up to Rona.

By the time the rest of their group arrived, they had lowered Chao-Ahn down and placed her and Meredith next to the entrance. Giles had located a large plastic sheet and spread it over Kennedy’s body. When Buffy saw the bus approaching she wanted nothing more than to hide. How was she going to tell Willow? Giles saved her. When Willow stepped off the bus, he quickly went to her. She couldn’t hear what he was saying, but she saw Willow collapse in his arms. Buffy went to check on the two surviving girls. Chao-Ahn was drifting in and out of consciousness. Meredith had been hysteric when they found her, last night’s events almost pouring out of her in between sobs, but now she was quiet and had reverted to an almost catatonic state. Buffy felt utterly defeated. Just one day and they had already lost someone and, if those army reports were right, chances for Chao-Ahn’s survival were slim. But she couldn’t allow herself to dwell on these feeling, they had to move on if they wanted to survive.

They entered the mall through a door in the loading bay. They spread out and slowly moved through the building, checking for anything dangerous, dead or alive. The place proved to be everything they had hoped for, it had electricity from a sophisticated generator system and there was an array of solar panels installed on the roof. The shops were filled with useful stuff. Once they were sure the area was safe, they moved in. Camp was set up in the main court, were the food stands were located. Xander and Andrew retreated to the mall’s “tech room” to check on the generator and see if they could shut down non-essential systems, like air conditioning. The girls found a furniture store and brought mattresses to sleep on. On mattress was moved into a near-empty utility room, located between “Paul’s Pretzels” and “The Coffee Bean”, were they prepared a bed for Chao-Ahn. They tied one of her ankles to some pipes. Nobody felt comfortable with this arrangement, but they had to take precautions. Willow had kind of drifted along, but once Chao-Ahn was settled in, she retrieved some of the army files and sat down next to her. Xander came back and announced he had found showers in the maintenance staff’s locker rooms, so most of the girls wandered off in search for toiletries and fresh clothes.

“How’s she holding up?” Xander asked Buffy, nodding in the direction of the utility room.

“Willow or Chao-Ahn?”

“Both.”

Buffy sighed. “Chao-Ahn hasn’t woken up since she hit the mattress and we think she’s feverish. Willow, I don’t know. Giles says she was shocked, but now she seems to have calmed down. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. I mean, I don’t want her to go all Darth Willow   
again, but …”

“Maybe staying busy is her way of coping.” He paused. “Robin got shovels from the hardware store. We thought we might dig a grave for Kennedy outside the fence. Faith and Spike have volunteered to clean up the parking lot; they want to put them in one of the trucks and park it somewhere down the road, but Kennedy… she’s one of us, she deserves a grave.”

Buffy nodded. “Need any help?”

“Na, we got it covered.”

Buffy joined Anya, who was walking along the row of mattresses, carrying an armful of blankets and sleeping bags and dropping one on each mattress.

“If they want pillows, they have to get them from the furniture store,” she said.

“Not joining the shower rush?” Buffy asked.

“Not yet.” Anya wrinkled her nose. “My shirt is kinnda bloody and stinky, but I can wait ‘till they’re done. I’ve spent enough time in the waiting line at the bathroom back at your house.”

Buffy grinned. “Me too. Wanna check out the supermarket?”

“Sure. Let’s get Andrew; he pretty much volunteered for kitchen duty at the motel…”

They were interrupted by Willow, coming out of the utility room.

“Does this place have a drugstore or pharmacy?” she asked. “I need a thermometer to monitor Chao-Ahn’s temperature.”

“I think I saw one on the upper level,” Anya answered. As soon as Willow had disappeared she whispered to Buffy. “I’m kind of jumpy. I expect her to go all black and veiny any minute.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “If she was this upset, it would have already happened. Now, let’s find Andrew and check out the food.”

After wandering among the shops, they finally found him in the comic book store. Reluctantly he joined them. The supermarket was probably just like every other supermarket, but under the circumstances, it took their breath away. All the shelves and freezers were fully stocked; there were also fresh fruits and vegetables. The only empty spot was the fresh meat section, but right know they doubted anyone would want to eat meat anyway. Anya slowly turned on the spot.

“We’re never gonna be able to eat all of this before it goes bad.”

“According to my calculations, we have about two weeks before the generator runs out; maybe even more”, Andrew said. “Its kinnda amazing, that type of generator system is usually installed in bomb shelters.”

“Yeah, but at the same time the number of emergency exits is way below state regulations”, Anya commented. “What kind of crazy person planed this thing? Not that I’m complaining.”

“We should go back”, Buffy said.

On the way to the main court they met Dawn. She had her wet hair wrapped in a towel and was dressed in brand new clothes.

“Ah, here you are. Just wanted to let you know, the showers are all yours now. We helped Meredith to get cleaned up. She’s getting better. Giles gave her a sedative from the pharmacy and she’s sleeping now.”

Buffy checked her watch. “Too late; Xander and Robin are preparing a grave for Kennedy and I guess we should bury her as soon as they are done. We need someone to stay with Chao-Ahn and Meredith…”

“I’ll do it”, Dawn quickly interrupted.

“I’m not sure. You know what could happen to Chao-Ahn and I don’t want you to be there.”

Dawn crossed her arms. “Fine, but I’m still not going to this funeral thing. If you asked me, we should have chucked her over the fence and be done with it. Faith told her it was too dangerous”, Dawn continued,” but did she listen? No. Miss I’m-a-slayer-now just had to go and show the world how super special she was; never mind people who have been doing this job for much longer warned her. Selfish bitch. And she didn’t stop at getting herself killed and hurting her girlfriend, no, she had to drag others into it. She abused the trust of two of her sisters in arms and she was really sneaky with that. Did she ask Rona or Vi to tag along? No. She picked Meredith, who, being the youngest, wouldn’t dare to say no to her and Chao-Ahn, who probably had no idea what she was getting herself into until it was too late.”

“Dawn…”

“I might be tempted to spit on her grave or something, so, out of respect for Willow, I’m staying away.”

Buffy gave up. The last thing she needed now was getting into a major argument with her sister, especially, when she secretly had to agree with her.

“Fine, but I’ll ask Spike to keep you company.” Dawn was about to protest, but Buffy held up her hands. “Look, I know you can take care of yourself, but if anything happens with Chao-Ahn… I just don’t want you to be the one who has to do it.”

“Fine”, Dawn agreed and stalked off.

 

Robin and Xander had already placed Kennedy’s body in the grave and filled it up again as the group quietly gathered in a circle. Buffy knew that somebody should say something and that probably everybody expected her to be that somebody, but her mind went blank. She glanced at Willow from the corner of her eye. Her best friend had her eyes fixed on the ground and was chewing her lower lip. The silence stretched and just as it was starting to get uncomfortable, Willow picked up a small rock from the ground and placed it on the grave. One by one they followed her example and after another short moment of silence they filed back to the mall. Once everyone was inside the fence, Robin blocked the driveway with one of the trucks. Back inside Buffy quickly checked on Dawn and then slipped away to take a shower, picking up a change of clothes and some towels on her way. When she returned, she saw that Andrew had managed to turn on the oven at the pizza hut counter and someone had picked up a shopping cart full of frozen pizzas from the super market. Anya was cutting up melons. When the first round of pizzas was done and everybody started to fill their plates, Anya stepped on a chair and raised her arm.

“Can I have your attention please? Hello; public service announcement! I’m going to say this once and just this once: yes, we have food. Lots of it; but you have to eat the fruit and veggies first, because growing humans need their vitamins…who am I kidding? I don’t care if you eat ice cream three times a day, but if I catch anyone eating the non-perishable stuff there will be hell on earth. That includes chocolate, chips or cookies.”

Buffy had to grin as she saw Xander shoving a Twinkie underneath his pillow with a guilty expression. While eating her pizza, she looked around for Spike, but he was nowhere to be seen. They hadn’t really talked since last night and then it had been nothing more than exchanging information. The mall had gotten into some kind of “night mode” and most of the lights had gone out or dimmed. Finally she spotted the glow from a burning cigarette on the upper level and, having finished her meal, she went up to join him.

“Hey”, he said without turning, sensing her approach.

“Hey, too. How was your first day in the sun?”

“Strange. First the talisman was trying to kill me and now it turned into some kind of security blanket.” He touched his chest. “I can feel it in there and I keep wondering if it will change its mind again…”

He turned around and stretched out his arms. “But, hey, no sunburn”, he said with a grin,” but I think I won’t get a tan either.”

“How come?”

“I think a circulation might be required.” He paused. “You know; it’s a pity. Here I am, the only vamp to get the blood of about a dozen slayers, plus their watcher and no one around to brag.”

Buffy chuckled and leaned against the railing next to him. They stayed silent for a moment and Buffy fidgeted with the hem of her t-shirt. What she had said down in the Hellmouth felt like the elephant in the room and Spike obviously didn’t want to be the one talking about it. She bit her lower lip. She had never been good talking about her feelings with him; she never found the right words and usually kind of danced around things. They had managed to talk about it – them- during those last days in Sunnydale, but then she had chickened out, telling him that she couldn’t define what they had. She opened her mouth, but instead of talking about her feelings, she blurted out: “Are you hungry? I mean, it wasn’t much…”

“With slayer blood, a little goes a long way.”

“Yeah, that might be true, but you need to feed again at one point and I thought you might want to … you know…”

“No way! I’ll figure something out.”

“Spike; it’s not like we can make a short trip to the butcher’s shop…”

“I said no!” Spike started to pace. “I’m not going to drink from you; would make me feel like a fucking leech.”

Buffy put her hands on her hips. “What is wrong with you vampires? One minute you’re all “I’ll drain you dry!” and as soon as I’m offering, you can’t seem to get away fast enough! Is it me? Do I leave some kind of bad aftertaste or what?”

“No, it’s just… I just don’t want to use you like that.”

“Well, right now it’s the only option we’ve got and I swear, if you try to starve yourself, I’ll chain you up and force feed you!”

Spike stopped pacing and hung his head in defeat. Buffy stepped closer and brushed her hair away from her neck. Spikes bend down and as she felt his face change, she willed her body to relax. Her instincts went on overdrive at the prospect of being bitten by yet another vampire. The Master had hurt big time; Angle too, at first. She couldn’t really remember Dracula, maybe because of the thrall thing. When Spike’s fangs pierced her skin she hardly felt it. He took just a few sips before he retracted his fangs and licked the wound clean, but he didn’t move away. Buffy leaned into the embrace and gathered her courage. This was it.

“Spike, what I said to you down there…”

“It’s ok, pet, I told you…”

Did he really think she would back paddle?

“No, Spike, I meant what I said. I do love you.” There, she said it.

Spike sighed and tucked her head under his chin.

“You meant it then. But, “he continued, “you thought I was as good as dead. You might still mean it, but I get it now. You were right, when you explained that cookie thing to the Poofter.”

“One of my less brilliant moments”, Buffy mumbled into his chest.

“But it was true. From the moment you were called it was one big fight after the other, with you trying to squeeze in some living now and then. You were always the slayer; never really had the chance to be just Buffy and it doesn’t look like that’s about to change anytime soon. I’m not saying I’m leaving. I do love you and I’ll stay with you for whatever is going to happen, but, for now, I’m ok with us being undefined.” She could feel him smile. “Don’t worry; I’ll make sure I’ll be right there once the cookies are done.” He brushed his fingers across the puncture marks on her neck. Buffy tried to hide her smile. He had put them right on top of Angle’s mark. “You know, Buffy, you might want to explain these to your watcher. I don’t fancy having him chasing me with a stake. That is, if he is not too busy.”

“Huh?” Buffy turned around and peered over the railing. Faith, Robin and Giles sat at a table, deep in discussion. A discussion, which obviously had turned heated, if the pointing fingers were any indication.

“Not sure who’s he going to stake first; Faith or the teacher?”

Buffy sighed. “I guess I should see what got his knickers all twisty.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had some free time on my hands, so could finish another chapter sooner than I hoped. Some of the things in here and in the following chapter are not meant to be "Kennedy-bashing"; I don't really dislike her, but I don't love her either. I do have plans for Willow, I'm just not sure they will work out. But, step one was to get Kennedy out of the way...  
> I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got a bit distracted by Halloween and real life in general, so it took me a while to finish this chapter. Thanks for reading!

“But we blocked that off with shopping carts! “ Faith said loudly.

“They could crawl and push them aside!” Robin argued.

Faith rolled her eyes. “We tied them together with rope; we would notice if they tried to move them. But fine; I’m sure Xander could come up with some way to reinforce that.”

“And what about the fence? This place is simply too big to keep secure.”

Giles pinched the bridge of his nose and looked like he was getting a major headache.

“What’s the problem?” Buffy asked.

“The problem is”, Faith answered,” that Robin wants us to move on as soon as possible, preferably tomorrow morning.”

Robin threw his hands up in exasperation.

“I’m simply trying to point out that our group is too small to defend this place. We’d have to put everyone on watch 24/7 and wouldn’t even be able to cover the fence. What if we get a horde out there and they break through?”

“I think we might notice a horde before they have a chance to do that,” Giles interjected.

“They could climb over the fence,” Robin shot back.

Faith laughed bitterly. “Really? If they could climb, Chao-Ahn and Meredith wouldn’t have survived last night. So far, I’m still waiting to see one of these things have a go at free climbing.”

“I don’t think it would be necessary to patrol the fence, it would be sufficient to have a few people up on the roof as lookouts. We are located on a hill, surrounded by open area and we have binoculars; we should notice any kind of thread well in advance,” Giles suggested.

“As long as they don’t fall asleep again…”

Giles looked like he was about to strangle Robin. “Would you please refrain from bringing that up again anytime in the near future? We are fortunate that Andrew finally stopped apologizing!” 

“I do have to agree with Robin;” Buffy started. “But it would be suicide to leave now. We have no real idea what is going on out there. Where would we go? We need to come up with a plan and prepare accordingly and yes, I know I’m currently kinnda lacking in the plan department. Then there’s Chao-Ahn; right now she’s too sick to travel and there’s no way we’re going to leave her if there’s still hope. If last night should have taught us anything, then that the only way to survive is working together. I suggest we’d stick with Giles’s idea for now. We rest and then we can start to talk about plans for the future.”

She turned to Robin. “You can set up the schedule for guard duty for tonight and we figure everything else out tomorrow.”

He sat down and started drawing up a timetable, while Faith and Giles began to discuss ideas for extra fence security.

“Thank God,” Dawn commented as she flopped down next to her sister,” for a while I thought there would be mud wrestling up next.”

“No wonder, I mean, we all are kind of stuck in permanent freak-out mode right now.” Buffy looked towards the utility room. “Did Willow come out to eat?”

Dawn shook her head. “No. I brought her some pizza, but I’m not sure she even noticed. She’s got the laptop and about a gazillion of files in there.”

 

Buffy silently entered the room. There was no furniture, safe for Chao-Ahn’s mattress. Next to it, someone had put a bowl of water and some towels. The only light came from the laptop’s monitor and a lone desk lamp sitting on the floor in a corner. Willow sat cross-legged on the ground, surrounded by papers and was scribbling on a notepad, a forgotten plate of cold pizza at her feet. Buffy looked at the girl lying on the mattress. Chao-Ahn had her eyes closed and her face glistened with perspiration.

“You should get some rest. I’ll take over.”

Willow looked up from her notepad and blinked.

“Oh, hi. Uhm, no, I’m fine.”

“Willow, you look like you’re about to keel over. You have to take a break.”

“I can’t. If I do that, I’ll start to think about stuff and I don’t want to.”

Buffy tried to find an empty spot on the floor and sat down next to her best friend.

“You know, trying to bottle up the pain and grief and ignoring it never works; believe me, I’ve tried,” she remarked.

Willow sighed. “But that’s the thing. There isn’t really any pain and grief and that’s what’s bothering me. When I lost Tara it was … like the end of everything. But today, standing there, I realized, this was my girlfriend’s funeral and all I could come up with was some vague felling of loss. I should be crying, or, I don’t know…”

“Willow, I’m sure that’s just the shock, once it’ll wear off…”

“I’m not in shock!” Willow said vehemently. “And if I don’t keep busy, I’ll start brooding. I’ll start to think about the kind of person I am, or I have turned into. I’ll wonder if I’ve gotten so callous by now, that loosing someone doesn’t bother me anymore. Or that I never really loved Kennedy in the first place. That I just …used her.”

Buffy pulled her into an embrace.

“You’re not callous. If you were, you wouldn’t have these thoughts. Listen to me; Tara was the love of your life and a very special person. Kennedy, maybe, was rebound girl, but that doesn’t mean you used her. I mean, she was the one chasing after you and, to be honest, it had me worried you might get hurt. Because, I kept wondering if it was really you she was interested in or “the slayer’s best friend”. Not like I’m saying she didn’t have feelings for you”, Buffy added hastily.

Willow sniffed. “It was nice. To be …wooed, you know. Everyone was looking at me like I had the plague and there was this one person who didn’t care. Who made me think I was still worthy of being loved, despite everything I’ve done.”

“So, stop beating yourself up. Remember Kennedy as the girl who made you believe in love again. You made each other happy, and that’s what’s important.”

“I guess so.” Willow straightened and rubbed her eyes. “But right now there are simply more important things to figure out than my feelings.”

She picked up the thermometer and slipped it into Chao-Ahn’s mouth. Once it beeped, she checked the result and wrote it down on her notepad.

“How is she?” Buffy asked.

“To be honest? I have no idea,” Willow answered and picked up one of the files scattered on the floor. “She does have a fever and its pretty high, but still well below the temperatures on record.”

Buffy frowned: “On record?”

Willow held up her hand. “I’ll get to that part eventually. It’s just that there is so much information, which should be great, but at the same time it’s confusing the heck out of me.”

She held up the file. “This is the report Xander mentioned, by the army team’s science guy, a Dr. Hanson. He used a lot of big words in there, but if you take a closer look, it’s nothing more than a bunch of guess work. It’s pretty straight forward – bite, septic shock, death followed by zombiefication, but he completely neglects the virus factor.”

Buffy’s eyes turned to Chao-Ahn.

“We should get her on antibiotics to fight the infection then?”

“No.” Willow shook her head. “Antibiotics only work on bacteria, not viral infections. That’s where Hanson got confused. Now, bite wounds practically come with a build-in guaranty for infection and human bites are the worst. The human mouth is bacteria city and I don’t want to even think about zombie mouths. So, he went with the most probable cause for the fever, infection. Then I started to decrypt more of the files on the laptop and found this folder.” She turned the monitor so Buffy could see. “It’s a goldmine of info; the only thing missing is the most important part of the puzzle; how the virus was made in the first place. The military tried to hide their screw-up, as usual, so scientists and doctors treated it like they would treat any other outbreak. So, at least in the beginning, they collected loads of statistical data to figure out where this thing came from and how to treat patients.” Willow clicked on one of the files and a document with lots of numbers and diagrams appeared on the screen. She scrolled down a bit.

“See this?” She pointed to a number on the screen. “This is the number of perfectly healthy people who developed a high fever out of nowhere and died.”

Buffy had to swallow. The number was staggering.

“And that’s just from the first week,” Willow continued. “After that, I think they couldn’t keep it from the news any longer and everything just descended into chaos.”

She scrolled down further. “For this curve they compiled the data they had on the victim’s fever, you know, like the statistical average of temperatures.”

She picked up the notepad and handed it to Buffy.

“I copied that and added Chao-Ahns temperature. You see? The top line is from the file, the one underneath, the dotted one, is Chao-Ahn. As you can see the dotted line never quiet reaches the other one.”

“So,” Buffy leaned back with a frown, “you think the fever has nothing to do with Chao-Ahn being bitten? It’s from the virus?”

“Yes!” Willow said, relieved that Buffy understood. “Plus, I have cast-iron proof that she’s not septic. Check this out!”

She scooted over to Chao-Ahn, carefully removed the medical tape from the girls’ shoulder and peeled back the gauze pad. The skin showed no redness, no sign of infection at all. I fact, the wound looked like it was well on its way to healing.

Willow looked at her friend. “Tell me; with all the times you got injured, did you ever get an infection?”

Buffy frowned. As much as she wracked her brain, she couldn’t remember.

“I don’t think so. The bigger ones went a tiny bit red sometimes, but only when they were still fresh…no,” she shook her head,” never had one getting infected.”

“And that makes it even more complicated. All of this,” Willow gestured to the piles of research surrounding them,” is about normal people. We simply don’t know what happens to a slayer. I can only come up with one theory; when Chao-Ahn was bitten, her slayer healing kicked in to take care of the possible infection from the bite. So it was kind of busy, which gave the virus, otherwise kept in check by her immune system, a chance to go active. Antibiotics wouldn’t be of much help, since she’s battling a virus, so all we can do now is sit back and wait.”

“You think she can beat it?”

Willow slummed back against the wall next to Buffy. “I hope; all we can do is waiting.”

 

Buffy felt herself falling and bolted upright. Looking around, she realized that she had dozed off at one point. Willow was curled up on the floor, snoring softly; her nose inches away from the forgotten pizza. Buffy scrambled for the notepad and found that Willow had added to the curve, taking Chao-Ahn’s temperature in hourly intervals. She checked her watch and realized that she had woken up right on time. Her muscles had grown stiff from sleeping in a sitting position against the wall and protested painfully as she stood up. She grabbed the thermometer and kneeled down next to Chao-Ahn, dabbing her face with a towel first and then pushing the thermometer in her mouth. The girl murmured in protest and tried to spit it out. Buffy did her best to hold it in place while Chao-Ahn tossed and turned her head. Finally, the thermometer beeped and Buffy awkwardly padded the girl’s arm.

“See? All done.”

“What? When did I fall asleep?” Willow asked, blinking in confusion. 

“It’s alright; I’ve just taken her temperature and she seems more awake,” Buffy answered and studied the thermometer. Her face lit up. “The fever is down!”

Willow took the thermometer and smiled when she read the number. “Thank Goddess! The temperature was getting lower, but I wasn’t sure…”

They were interrupted by Chao-Ahn’s attempt to sit up and Buffy quickly put an arm around her to steady her. The girl closed her eyes briefly and croaked some Chinese words, but then she took a deep breath and managed to say “Water”. Willow dashed off and soon returned with a paper cup from the coffee stand filled with water. She even brought a plastic straw. Buffy placed the straw between Chao-Ahn’s cracked lips and the girl gulped down the water hastily.

“I just hope she’s not throwing it up right away,” Buffy muttered. Once Chao-Ahn had finished the water, she lowered her to the mattress again and pulled the blanket up. The young slayer fell asleep almost instantly.

“So, I guess we now got an answer to the big question,” Buffy said and looked at Willow. Willow was starring of into thin air, her face scrunched up in concentration.

“Willow?”

The redhead, suddenly returning to the present, turned towards her with an almost mad gleam in her eyes. 

“That’s it! I think…I think I have an idea! I think there was something in there…” She started to search through the papers scattered on the floor.

Buffy looked at her expectantly. “Great; spill!”

Willow shook her head.

“Not yet, I’m not quite sure; there are a few things I have to check first Go ahead and hit the mattress; I’ll stay with Chao-Ahn while I look up a few things.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” Willow looked up distractedly,” but if you see Andrew, could you tell him I’d have something to discuss with him, I mean, as soon as he wakes up?”

“Will do,” Buffy promised and went off in search of a place to sleep. She crawled onto the first empty mattress she saw and closed her eyes.

 

When Buffy woke up again, she found she had missed breakfast. One of the larger tables from the dining area had been pushed up to the Pizza Hut counter and now served as some kind a of buffet table, but most of the food was already gone. Buffy grabbed a paper plate and filled it with what was left of the scrambled eggs and the last piece of toast. The rest of the selection was made up of a lone yogurt and a grapefruit half. She looked around. Their “camp” was pretty much empty, the only people around being Meredith, sitting at a table and slowly eating a whole tub of Ben&Jerry’s ice cream and Anya and Andrew behind the counter. Apparently they had chooses the Pizza Hut counter as their designated kitchen area and they were hard at work chopping up vegetables.

“Good morning!” Andrew greeted her cheerily. “If you want coffee; there’s a box of these instant single portion packs next to the hot water thingie…”

“We couldn’t figure out the coffee maker,” Anya interrupted. “I thought you might know, with your experience working minimum wage in the fast food industry.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. Just when she started to like the former demon, Anya had to say something in her typical, vaguely insulting Anya-way. Remembering her conversation with Willow from last night, she turned to Andrew.

“Thanks and, by the way, Willow needs to see you, about some research stuff.”

Andrew hurried of, with a disgruntled Anya calling after him: “Why, thank you! Thank you for leaving me alone, trying to feed the masses!”

Buffy held up her breakfast plate.

“I’ll help you as soon as I’m finished eating,” she told Anya. The woman returned to her task, muttering under her breath and Buffy sat down next to Meredith, happy to see that the girl seemed to have recovered from her nightmarish experience.

“I see you have followed Anya’s advice,” Buffy stated, nodding towards the Ben&Jerry’s.

Meredith continued to stab her spoon into the ice cream forcefully.

“You know,” Buffy continued,” whatever it is; I think the ice cream is innocent.”

“It’s just; I’m so angry,” Meredith said without looking up. “Angry with myself,” she clarified.

“Why?”

“Because I was stupid and scared,” Meredith answered miserably. “I was stupid to just go along with Kennedy. I had a bad feeling when she asked us to go on a “special mission”, but in the end, I was scared to speak up.”

Buffy swallowed some toast before she answered.

“Well, it was Kennedy; I guess she could be very convincing”

Meredith finally looked up. “You know what she called us, back when we were training at your house? Maggots.”

Buffy inhaled sharply. She hadn’t known.

“And I didn’t want her to see I was scared,” Meredith continued. “I’m a slayer now; I’m not supposed to be scared. And then, on top of that truck, with Chao-Ahn, I just lost it. I freaked out and cried like a baby. It was kind of ok to be scared when I was still a potential, with the bringers and the supervamps, but now? I mean, you and Faith, you’re never scared…” She trailed off.

“Never scared?” Buffy repeated, snorting. “I was 15 when I was called, older than you are. During those first few weeks I only survived by sheer dumb luck, trembling in my boots the whole time. Faith? Ask her about Kakistos sometime; she ran all the way from Boston to Sunnydale to get away from him. You will always be scared; you just get better at hiding it. And being scared is good. Kennedy? She acted like nothing scared her and so she got reckless. Giles used to remind me, that a fearless slayer is a sloppy slayer – or something like that. Fear makes you think before you act and that’s a good thing. It’s what keeps you alive. You freaked, but you did the smart thing; you got yourself and Chao-Ahn to a save place instead of fighting a losing battle.”

“You really think?”

“Yes; and I might add that I’m pretty scared right now. The world is overrun by zombies; we’re stuck here without really knowing what goes on out there; we have no idea what we should do next and everyone expects that I come up with some brilliant plan to fix this whole mess. Plus, I should finish eating and report for kitchen duty, because Anya is looking at me in a pretty scary way.”

Meredith laughed. “Yep; she can be really scary sometimes.”

Buffy finished her breakfast and looked around.

“Looks like she already scared everyone off. Where are they?” she asked.

“Uhm,” Meredith swallowed her last spoon of ice cream and started to count of,” Robin and Xander went outside for some fence inspection; Giles, Shannon, Caridad, Faith and Daisy are on guard duty up on the roof. The rest of the girls went to explore the shops. Oh, and your sister found this really cool Japanese sword at the comic book store. It’s a replica of the katana from that movie, “Kill Bill”, you know, the one Uma Thurman used. It’s dull and she’s been begging Spike to see if he could sharpen it for her, so they went to the hardware store, I think”

Buffy looked alarmed, so Meredith quickly went on: “She had to swear she wouldn’t do anything with it until she received proper instructions how to handle it.”

They saw Andrew emerging from Willow’s lair, looking all puffed up and important, carrying the notepad under his arm. When he spotted Meredith, he made a beeline for her.

Buffy got up and collected her empty plate.

“Well, I’ll better be off to help Anya and it looks like you’re the first target on Andrew’s research mission.

Meredith rolled her eyes. “Oh joy!”

 

“What are you cooking?” Buffy asked as she joined Anya behind the counter.

“I’m making vegetable soup; the Chinese girl had tea and toast for breakfast and Willow thinks’ she’s ready for some soup,” Anya answered. “Here,” she pushed a bowl of potatoes in Buffy’s direction,” you can start peeling those.”

Once the vegetables were chopped, they dumped them into an industrial-sized pot and Buffy carried it to the stove located in the kitchen area in the back. After she had explained the coffee maker, Anya told her she was free to go. Buffy decided to see what Dawn and Spike were up too and started to walk towards the hardware store. As she passed one of the boutiques, she spotted a group of giggling girls trying on evening gowns. Inside the sporting goods store, Meredith and Rona were engaged in a fierce Ping-Pong match, while Susann was sitting on a bench, talking to Andrew. The nerd was scribbling on his notepad furiously. Buffy just hoped that Willow’s idea, whatever it was, would help them to come up with a battle plan sometime in the near future. The first thing she heard upon entering the store was her sister whining. Buffy had to smile. Even if she couldn’t understand what she was saying, she could clearly picture the glare and the pout that went with it. Buffy moved silently along the shelves, until she spotted her. Dawn was standing in an open space between the paint and the plumbing section. It looked like Spike had instructed her to take an attack position and hold it. Even from the distance Buffy could see the light tremor in her sister’s raised arms as she did her best to keep her posture. Spike was circling her, correcting her stance. Once he was satisfied, Dawn was asked to put the katana away and Spike handed her a broomstick. Buffy noticed he had gotten a mannequin from one of the clothing stores to use as a practice dummy. Now Dawn had to attack the dummy with the broomstick. Buffy was sure that by tomorrow morning her sister’s muscles would hurt like hell. Spike had probably noticed her presence the minute she had entered the store, but Dawn was oblivious to her sister watching. Not wanting to interrupt the lesson, Buffy quietly slipped away. On her way back to “camp” she saw Andrew again, this time interviewing Rona. 

By evening Buffy was restless. Anya, still annoyed that Andrew had deserted her in the kitchen, had figured out the fryer and served up all kinds of artery-clogging goodness like fries, mozzarella sticks, chicken nuggets, onion rings and jalapeno poppers. With the exception of those on watch, everyone had gathered in the dining area again and loaded up their plates. People were chatting and laughing. Chao-Ahn had gotten slightly confused at the round of applause greeting her as she sat down with a plate full of fries. Buffy tried to listen as Dawn excitedly talked about her new weapon, but her eyes were glued to the table at the far end, were Willow and Andrew had their heads together. They barely touched their food, but kept flipping through Andrew’s notes, deep in conversation. Buffy wondered what they were up to. She just hoped that Willow had made some progress with that idea she had mentioned, because she still had no idea what to do. Tomorrow they should start checking for additional weapons, since one could never have enough weapons. Buffy was sure there was something useful in the sporting goods store, like archery equipment. The hardware store was another good place to look. She had taken a look around the pharmacy and while she was sure it contained lots of supplies, most of the medication stored there meant nothing to her. Maybe Giles or Robin could figure out what was worth taking. So far, that was the only plan she had managed to come up with. The whole situation was driving her nuts. Back in Sunnydale their lives had been in constant danger, but at least they had a goal. Now, well, their lives still were in constant danger, but they were kind of drifting. Buffy could see were Robin was getting nervous. If they stayed here, in the isolated luxury of the mall, they would just continue to drift through their days and soon they would start to slack off. And then it would only be a matter of time until they got themselves killed. Buffy noticed that the discussion between Andrew and Willow seemed to have gotten more heated. It looked like Andrew was urging Willow to do something she refused. That was another thing. The mall was big, but with everyone cooped up and nothing productive to do, tempers were running short. Buffy was about to go over, when Andrew got up and knocked on the table to get everyone’s attention.

“Willow has an idea she’d like to discuss with you,” he announced.

Willow got up reluctantly. From the glare she was giving him it was obvious she wasn’t happy to be put in the spotlight. She cleared her throat.

“I think we should go to the CDC.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had a free weekend, so I finished another (small) chapter. Thanks for reading!

Willow looked around. Her announcement was greeted with silence and blank stares. Just like she had expected.

“The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Druid Hills,” she clarified. “I have a theory about how we could beat this zombie virus and the CDC is the most likely place that might still have the equipment and people to test my theory.”

Now everybody started talking at once and Willow briefly closed her eyes. That’s why she had wanted to talk things over with Giles first. The commotion was broken by an earsplitting whistle from Robin.

“First of all, I thought the CDC is in Atlanta,” he asked once things had quieted down,” and what makes you think they are still operational?”

“Druid Hills is a bit outside Atlanta. The CDC is one of the few biosafety level four labs in the world. They work with the most lethal diseases, like Ebola, which means that they know their job. The place can be sealed of completely if there is an outbreak, so they can keep working,” Willow explained. “With every epidemic doctors are looking for people who either don’t get the disease at all, or who make a full recovery, because those are the people who usually help them to find a cure. Chao-Ahn had the fever and survived.”

“Yeah, but she’s a slayer,” Xander pointed out.

Willow shook her head. “That was my first thought, but then I came across a folder on the commando laptop. It had all kinds of reports and statistical data, most of it non-military, just the kind of stuff that epidemiologist collect when they try to figure out an unknown disease. There was a CDC bulletin by a Doctor Jenner; he had noticed something odd. When he had looked at mortality rates, he found a very small group of patients that survived the fever, all of them young girls. I think those girls were potentials.”

Giles cleared his throat. “Don’t you think that’s a bit farfetched?”

“Not at all and that’s why Andrew and I came up with all those questions; you see, I remembered Buffy once telling me, back when we were dealing with the Kindstod, that she never really had been sick as a child. In fact, that’s something all slayers present here have in common; they were all unusually athletic and unusually healthy.”

“But the slayer line is based on magic,” Giles insisted.

“Believe me Giles; I am very familiar with that spell. All it did was pick the next slayer at random from a group of potentials. Did you never ask yourself what exactly made a potential? What made her different from other girls? Was it just a label randomly slapped on some girls at birth? I think for a girl to be a potential she had to be born with certain genetic characteristics, an above average immune system being one of them.”

Giles leaned back in his chair, contemplating her words.

“I’d say we should go for it,” Faith said. “I mean, we pretty much agreed that we have to go somewhere else sooner or later, so why not Atlanta?”

“You really think they could find a cure?” Buffy asked.

“I don’t know,” Willow admitted,” but I think it’s worth a try.”

Buffy let her gaze sweep over the group. “So I guess we should take a vote. Who wants to go to Atlanta?”

Some were hesitant, but in the end everyone voted in favor for Willow’s plan.

“So Atlanta it is. Any idea how we get there? I mean, it’s not like we can hop on the next plane…” Buffy mused.

“We take the bus?” Willow suggested.

“No way!” Rona protested. “Driving from here to Atlanta would take, what, three days or so under normal circumstances; God knows how long it takes now. It’s not like we can stop at a motel on the way and I’m sure not going to try to sleep on a school bus!”

“She has a point”, Robin agreed. “We can’t assume that we reach Atlanta in one go. We are bound to take breaks and to camp out in the open would be suicide.”

“Yeah, that’s like setting up an all-you-can eat buffet,” Faith added.

“How about making some modifications? We could take out the seats and put in bunk beds; maybe reinforce the windows?” Xander suggested.

Robin frowned. “You can’t fit enough sleeping room for everyone in there.”

“No, but there are some delivery vans out in the parking lot; we could use them to pack supplies and they would provide additional space.”

“You think you can do this?” Buffy asked.

Xander shrugged. “It’s easy, the hardware store has everything I need; I could start measuring and drawing up plans first thing tomorrow.”

“How much time would it take?”

Xander grinned. “With a crew of super strong ladies…less than a week.”

 

Picking up the shopping basket full of cables and electronic components Willow left the store and made her way to the front entrance of the mall. As she passed the neatly stacked plastic boxes one labeled “girl stuff” caught her attention and she stopped and peered inside. The box was filled to the brim with tampons. She snorted. Dawn, who stood nearby, checking of things on her clipboard, raised her eyebrows. She was about to say something, but it was drowned out by the sound of the bench saw. It had been five days since they started their preparations and things were moving along nicely Most of the girls were working on the vehicles under Xander’s supervision, while Dawn had taken over the job of packing supplies. Willow had to admit that she was nothing but thorough. Dawn had started off by writing several lists and now she was packing everything up into plastic boxes she found at the dollar store, using a sharpie to label each box.

“What’s that for?” Dawn asked, once the earsplitting noise had stopped.

“Andrew wants to get one of the solar panels from the roof on the bus. Not sure if it’s going to work, but we could use it to power the laptop and maybe a cool box,” Willow answered.

Dawn grinned. “You do realize that he’s already packed some DVD’s? Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings?”

“I knew there had to be some ulterior motive.”

“Don’t worry,” Dawn said and showed Willow the clipboard. There, under the heading “Entertainment” was a list of a variety of movies, ranging from “Mean Girls” to “Kill Bill”.

Willow gave a thumbs up and headed outside. The blistering heat hit her as soon as she stepped out in the parking lot. She felt sorry for those stuck on watch, knowing from personal experience that it was even worse up on the roof. The vehicles were parked in a line right in front of the entrance. A pile of mattresses, still wrapped in plastic was stacked next to the school bus. Willow climbed it, so she could hand the shopping basket up to Andrew, who had just finished mounting the solar panel on top of the bus. Once he had helped her up, he turned his attention immediately to the contents of the basket.

“You think this will work?” she asked.

“Absolutely,” Andrew answered, not looking up from the cables he had been sorting into different piles.

Willow surveyed the activity around them. It still surprised her that her plan had been accepted this easily. The whole idea seemed crazy even to her now, but apparently, it had been just the thing everybody needed, a goal to work for. It looked like they were almost good to go and the thought terrified Willow. Nobody knew what was going on out there and the mall felt like a safe oasis. So far things had stayed quiet and not a single zombie had appeared outside the fence. The idea of just staying here was getting more and more tempting. Willow squared her shoulders. No, there was no turning back now. The peace wouldn’t last and they would run out of food at one point. They had to go. Suddenly the whole bus shook, as Spike slammed the hood shut. He had spent the past two days fixing up the engine, replacing anything that was worn out. It was strange to see him walk in the sun like any other person. Giles was still itching to find out more about the amulet and why it was making the vampire sun proof, but without his books there was no way. Since Andrew obviously didn’t need any help, Willow climbed down again. Shannon emerged from the bus.

“We’re ready to put the mattresses in,” she told Xander.

Spike lit up a cigarette. “Think we should wait and paint the thing first,” he said,” once Nerdboy is done with whatever he’s doing.”

“Why should we paint it?” Xander asked, slightly annoyed.

“Because the yellow will attract attention; it’s like a bloody neon sign.”

“Do you honestly think the zombies would notice?”

Spike exhaled a cloud of smoke. “I’m not worried about the walking corpses; it’s the living we should be worried about.” Taking in Xander’s confused expression, he continued. “Believe me, something like this brings out the worst in people, just ask your girlfriend, she’s been around long enough to see that once the veneer of civilization comes of, things get nasty. Do you know who has the best chances to survive in this scenario? Sure as hell not the white hats; it’s usually the monsters in human disguise. I bet right now there are some upstanding citizens happily bashing each other’s skulls in over a pack of stale crackers. So we should make sure to stay the hell away from the living too.”

Xander swallowed. He had never thought about that. “I think there’s enough spray paint at the store,” he remarked.

Spike ground out his cigarette. “Then lead the way.”

 

The large bucket with apples was almost impossible to squeeze in, but once she moved the pack of laundry detergent, she managed. Buffy glanced upwards to the “bed” Xander had managed to fit in the van. It was not much more than a crawl space and she knew that she would bump her head every time she woke up, but they needed as much space as possible to pack supplies. Dawn seemed to be intent on taking the whole mall along for the trip, if the laundry detergent was any indication. Buffy moved out of the way when Faith tossed two sleeping bags up to the bed.

“You know, I’m kind of surprised you’re not sharing with Spike,” Faith wondered, looking pointedly at the fresh bite mark on Buffy’s neck. “Does he snore or hog the covers?” 

“No, we’re …just friends,” Buffy answered.

Faith snorted. “Yeah, right, friends. You think I’m buying that?”

“We decided to take things slow, right. It’s …complicated,” Buffy said defensively. “Besides, the rumor mill mentioned you getting close and personal with a certain principal; so I could ask why you’re not bunking with Robin. Or is it still “get some and get gone”?”

“Ouch, think I deserved that.” Faith stayed silent for a moment. “How did they know about Robin?”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Please, like anything could have stayed secret at slayer central. Plus, you kinnda confirmed …”

With a sigh Faith plopped down on the ground and leaned her back against the van. She fished a cigarette out of the pack in her jacket and lit up, watching the curls of smoke drifting away.

Reluctantly Buffy sat down next to her.

“You know B.; I’ve never been good at this girl talk shit…” Faith started.

“Let me guess? It’s complicated?”

Faith chuckled. “Isn’t it always?”

“So, you had sex with Robin; and? Was it bad?” Buffy asked.

“No, it was pretty amazing and that’s the problem.”

“Huh?”

“You know, I’ve never been exactly the relationship type, but Wood? He’s …different; called me out on my bullshit right away. It’s not like I’m madly in love and want to marry the guy,” Faith hastily clarified,” but I thought I could give it a shot.” Faith took another drag on her cigarette. “And you know what? He gives me the brush off! Never happened before; no wait, when I borrowed your body, your boy toy did it too.”

Buffy frowned. “I kinnda remember you bragging about having sex with Riley.”

“Not Riley; Spike. Believe me, I tried, but he didn’t take the bait. Figured out something was off.”

“Well, he’s not taking the bait now,” Buffy confessed. “He’s got it in his head that I need time to make up my mind. Not that I could blame him.”

“So,” Faith threw the half smoked cigarette away and got up,” I guess we’re perfect roommates; you know, misery loves company and all.”

She offered her hand to Buffy, who took it.

“I guess so,” she said as Faith hauled her to her feet.

 

As the sun set, the whole group gathered outside the main entrance. Nothing happened so far, so Buffy figured it wouldn’t matter if they took a break from what Andrew called “constant vigilance”. The old school bus was freshly spray painted in different shades of browns and beiges. As a personal touch, Xander had sprayed the name “Mystery Machine” on the hood. Andrew’s solar powered battery system was working. The mini slayers were already squabbling over who would get to sleep in the top bunks. Xander had even added a build-in weapons chest. This might be the zombie apocalypse, but they would travel in style. 

“Listen up!” Buffy had to raise her voice to be heard over the chatter. “We leave tomorrow at sunrise. Everyone gets one bag to pack personal stuff like clothes. And don’t forget, tonight is your last chance for ice cream!” Her announcement was met with cheers and laughter.

Dawn raised her hand. “I’d like to make a suggestion!” Once she had everyone’s attention, she continued. “There’s been a lot of talk about the complete collapse of society, you know, like there are no more rules, and I think we should make up our own. There have always been some unofficial Scobbie rules, like, check if he’s got a pulse on your first date, not that my sister ever bothered…”

Buffy blushed as everyone laughed. 

“… and I think we should keep up that tradition. Now, I think everyone knows the most important rule, but I’m going to write it down anyway. Feel free to add.”

With that, she got out a sharpie and entered the bus and, knelling down on the weapons chest, wrote on the rear window:

#1 DON’T DIE!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! Things have been crazy at work, so by the time I got home I was to tiered to form coherrent sentences, let alone write. Basically I passed out on the couch... But finally I managed to finish this chapter. Thanks for reading!

One Month, maybe more. They had anticipated that it would take some time to get to Atlanta, but they never would have thought it would be that long. The first part had been relatively easy, as they tiptoed past LA using side roads. Once they reached the interstate near Palm Springs things started to get difficult. The road was packed with abandoned cars. To Buffy, it appeared like everyone on the east coast had tried to escape to California and vice versa. They had been forced to pretty much crawl along while they cleared the road. At first, the girls had been unsettled by the undead trapped in some cars, but soon it had turned into a mind numbing routine and they barley took notice. The group discussed taking side roads again, but they didn’t have a detailed map of the area, so they might get lost if they took a detour. So they soldiered on. Things started to get better once they reached Texas. They had started to check out stores and houses on their way, so they could restock their food supplies and pick up other stuff that might be useful. At a gas station, Robin had managed to find some road maps, so they could finally leave the packed main roads. Somewhere in a suburb of Fort Worth they hit another goldmine. The area was relatively free of zombies and they found a somewhat secluded mansion, surrounded by high walls. The house had been empty, but whoever used to live there had obviously loads of money. There was a swimming pool in the garden, still useable, and closets full of expensive designer clothes. The garage, probably bigger than Buffy’s old house, was full of rich people’s playthings, like three sports cars, a boat and two shiny motor cycles, which were immediately claimed by Spike and Robin. Since the place appeared to be relatively safe, they stayed for a few days. It had felt like staying at some surreal kind of holiday resort, but soon the number of zombies gathering outside the front gate grew, so they moved on. So far, they hadn’t encountered living people yet, but they had found traces that they weren’t the only ones left. Some of the places they scavenged bore signs of having been picked through recently by someone else.

 

Willow slammed her book shut. She just couldn’t concentrate. Since they had seen the first road sign mentioning Atlanta, she had turned into one big ball of nervous energy. They had set up camp several miles outside the city, while Robin and Spike went to scout the area. They had been gone for several hours and the suspense was killing her. She just couldn’t sit any longer, so Willow got up and started to pace. Not like there was a lot of room for pacing. The group was staying in the parking area at a gas station and they had parked their vehicles in a circle, with guards on top of every car. Faith, Buffy, Xander and some of the mini’s had left to do a quick sweep and deal with any zombies lurking in the neighborhood. While everyone displayed a rather blasé attitude regarding the undead, they were all very much aware of the threat they posed, especially after encountering a herd on the highway. Willow still shuddered at the memory. It had happened so fast, Robin and Spike had barley time to crawl underneath some abandoned cars. Then the zombies came. It felt like eternity as hundreds of rooting corpses shuffled past them and, while no one got injured, the experience had left them shaken. After that, they got even more cautious, doing sweeps every time the set up camp.

“Could you please stop? Your pacing is distracting!” Anya said slightly annoyed without looking up from the vegan cook book she was reading. “I’m trying to learn how to make fake parmesan cheese…Do we have nutrional yeast flakes?” 

“Giles and Robin; box labeled miscellaneous cooking stuff,” Dawn answered immediately. She and Chao-Ahn were huddled over an old gossip magazine they had gotten from the gas station. Dawn had spent every free minute of their journey teaching English to the Chinese girl and by now Chao-Ahn was almost fluent. At the same time Dawn had tried to learn Cantonese, but her progress was much slower.

A whistle from Shannon on top of the school bus announced the return of the sweep team.

“Problems?” Willow asked.

“Not really, “Faith answered, wrinkling her nose at the blood covering the scythe. She took a rag from the back pocket of her jeans and started to wipe it off. “But there are more of them since we got closer to the big city.”

“Are they back yet?” Buffy asked, referring to the scout team.

“No, “Willow answered,” and it’s making me nervous.”

“Relax,” Rona called down from her spot on one of the vans. She had been watching the road leading to Atlanta and had spotted two motor cycles heading in their direction through her binoculars. “Everything ok; they should be here in a few minutes.”

“See? Five by five,” Faith commented before turning to Andrew, who was tending to the camp fire. “By the way, what’s for dinner?”

Andrew shrugged. “Since we’re staying just one night, I didn’t bother to unpack, but I think there are enough of those ramen soup cups left. But we could use more water.”

“I think I saw one of these water cooler thingies at the gas station; Chao-Ahn and I will get it,” Dawn said. She got up and picked up the katana from the floor next to her, while Chao-Ahn slung her crossbow over her shoulder. They waved in greeting to Spike and Robin as they parked their bikes. Both men wore serious expressions.

“And?” Willow asked.

“It’s a goddamn war zone,” Robin answered. “Roads are jammed with cars, some are barricaded and the whole place is swarming with zombies. There’s no safe way across town.”

“Yeah,” Spike added,” we’ve got as far as Downtown; there were fucking tanks in the streets.”

“So we’ve got to detour again?”

“Willow, we’ve just arrived at the wrong side of town, but were here. We’ve made it this far; what’s a couple of more days?” Buffy tried to console her friend.

Robin kneeled on the ground and unfolded a map.

“Look, right now we’re here,” he explained, pointing to a spot on the map. “Druid Hills is right across town, so I suggest we take this road. It’s far enough away from the main city, so we should be relatively safe.”

Spike studied the map and then pointed out a different road. “Maybe we should go this way; it would take a bit longer, but it’s farther away. I’m not sure, but I think they are getting more aggressive. The zombies usually ignore me at first, maybe because I don’t register as “food”, but today? One tiny noise and they attacked like piranhas on speed.”

Buffy looked at the map, biting her lower lip. “They’re running out of food in the city, that’s why they are getting more aggressive.” She turned to Willow. “The CDC, is it in the city area?”

Willow frowned. “I’m not sure; I think it’s a bit like a university campus.”

“Then I think its best we go with Spike’s plan; stay away from the more populated areas as long as possible and then try to sneak in,” Faith suggested.

 

Later that evening, while everyone settled down for dinner, Giles spotted Willow sitting all by herself. She was absentmindedly flipping the pages of the book on genetics she had picked up in a book store while scavenging. He went over and sat down next to her. Noticing his expression, Willow smiled weakly.

“I thought Buffy was the counselor?” she attempted to joke.

“Do you think you need professional help?”Giles asked mock-serious.

“Not really,” Willow answered. “I’m just your average nervous wreck. I mean, at first I couldn’t get here fast enough and now I’ve got all these “what if’s” in my head. What if the CDC is on some kind of lockdown and they won’t let us in? What if there’s no one there? And honestly, what if my brilliant theory is just some kinda idiotic brainwave? What if they take one look at me and start laughing? I mean, we’re talking big name scientists; I’m just a girl, who hasn’t even finished college.”

“I can assure you, if I was a scientist, attempting to find a cure against a zombie virus and you showed up on my doorstep with an idea… I’d probably kiss your feet. But you should refrain from mentioning the slayer part.”

Willow chuckled, but then turned serious. “And what if they take everyone prisoner and perform all kinds of icky tests on Chao-Ahn? Like the Initiative?”

Giles threw his head back and laughed. Once he regained his breath he looked at Willow. “Do you really think they could?”

“Not really,” Willow agreed.

Giles put his hand on her shoulder, forcing her to look at his face. “We had to do something and you were the first to come up with a reasonable plan. And if any of those scenarios you’re thinking about really comes to pass, well, we’ll come up with something new. We always do. And now you’ll excuse me, I’ll have to see if any of these abhorrent noodle things are still left.”

 

They had packed up early the next morning and, after a quick breakfast of granola bars and cold pop tarts, set out on the route Spike had suggested last night. So far they had encountered only a few zombies. If they were on the sidewalks or in the fields, they simply ignored them. Robin and Spike were riding a bit ahead of the convoy and dealt with those shuffling around on the street by knifing their heads in a maneuver Vi had nicknamed “drive-by-slayage”. As the day wore on, more houses became visible behind the trees on the roadside and around midday the road turned into what must have once been the Main Street of a small town. Robin slowed down his bike until he was parallel to the van in the front, with Giles behind the wheel and Buffy in the passenger seat.

“There’s a convenience store ahead, it’s small, but we might get lucky,” he called.

“Sure,” Buffy answered, “let’s have a look.”

The convoy stopped and everyone grabbed their weapons and got out. They carefully surveyed their surroundings. A truck with the logo of a building company was parked in front of the store, the door on the driver’s side open, blood stains visible on the white paint. Faith went over, crossbow ready, and checked it. After she indicated that the truck was empty, Buffy signaled the rest of the scavenging team to follow her. They had this routine down by now. The door to the store was open and Buffy noticed more blood drips leading inside. Not a good sign. They paused at the door and listened. Sure enough, the groaning and wheezing of zombies could be heard from inside. Silently they entered and Buffy signaled to spread out. Slowly they made their way along the shelves until they found them. Apparently the five zombies had more important things on their minds than the new arrivals, as they kept milling around a ladder underneath a hatch leading up to the roof. Their bad, as they were quickly killed off. The group continued their sweep of the store in silence until everyone reported “All clear”. Rona unzipped the gym bag she had been carrying and placed it by the door. The selection was meager, but she had spotted coffee on one of the shelves, so she got that first.

“Anything special we should look for?” she called out to no one in particular.

“Tooth paste!” Dawn called back, as she carried a few cans of tomato soup to put them in the bag.

“Got it!” Buffy answered from behind a shelve. “And there are a few bottles of conditioner…”

“Take them!” Faith shouted immediately. 

Rona was looking at the shelve closest to the ladder. She picked up a lone pack of instant oatmeal. Next to it was an empty box of granola bars, smeared with blood. Rona looked down. There, on the floor, were several empty wrappers and more bloodstains. Her eyes followed the trail of blood, which lead to the pile of corpses at the bottom of the ladder.

“Buffy, I think we should check out the roof, maybe someone was trying to hide the good stuff up there!” Rona called.

“Go ahead, but don’t be surprised if it’s just another zombie!”

“If a zombie was up there, we would have heard it; Dawn can you back me up?”

“Sure!” Dawn came over and waited at the bottom while Rona climbed up. She cautiously stuck her head outside and looked around. There was a body lying at the edge of the roof, but nothing else.

“Hey, there’s someone up here!” she called down.

“Zombie?” Dawn asked.

“Not sure, at least it’s not moving,” Rona answered as she climbed up through the hatch.

Dawn followed her and they slowly approached the still figure, weapons ready.

It was a man, maybe somewhere around Giles’s age, dressed in dirty, faded jeans and a black leather vest. An empty water bottle, smeared with blood and a pistol were on the floor next to him.

“Ok, a zombie would have tried to bite by now,” Dawn whispered.

“Maybe he just died and hasn’t turned yet?” Rona stepped closer, kicking the pistol out of the way. “Holy shit!” she hissed as she saw the man’s right hand, or rather lack off. There was only a stump, wrapped in a blood soaked rag.

Dawn went pale. “You think it got bitten off?”

Rona shook her head. “No idea, but we better take him out before he goes all Dawn of the Dead on us,” she answered, bending down and raising her knife over the man’s head. Then she hesitated. She didn’t have a problem with killing zombies, but this man didn’t really look like one. He appeared much too human and the idea of putting a knife through his head made her squirm. Suddenly her eyes widened.

“Dawn, I think he’s breathing!”

“What?”

Throwing caution to the wind, Rona put her hand on the man’s chest.

“Oh my god, he’s alive; I can feel a heartbeat!”

Dawn rushed to the hatch.

“We’ve got a live one up here!” she called down.

“Shit!” Buffy was about to climb up, when Faith suddenly shouted from the door.

“Incoming; we’ve got to get out of here!”

Dawn looked up and noticed the zombies ambling along the street towards the store. It was a large group, not a herd, but at least twenty.

“Go; I’ve got him!” Rona shouted and started to drag the man towards the hatch, while Dawn practically flew down the ladder.

“Rona’s got him,” she told her sister as she sprinted to the door, picking up the bag on her way.

Rona hesitated as she reached the hatch, but then figured if the guy had survived until now, a few more bruises wouldn’t matter and threw him down the hole. Buffy caught him and together they carried him outside. They jumped on the bus mere seconds before the zombies reached them. The group speed off.

 

“Everyone ok?” Buffy asked, looking around.

“Everyone got out,” Anya answered from the driver’s seat.

They had dumped the man rather unceremoniously on Willow’s bed and the witch was already checking him for bites.

“Chao-Ahn!” Buffy called.

“Coming!” Chao-Ahn answered, trying to keep her balance as the bus turned sharply. One of the first things Dawn had asked the Chinese slayer during their lessons was how she had known to put in an IV. It turned out, that Chao-Ahn’s watcher had been a doctor and she had made sure her potential slayer not only learned how to fight, but also gave her some medical training. Chao-Ahn started to examine the man and then looked at Buffy.

“He’s got infection, lost much blood and is …”she frowned.

“Dehydrated?” Willow supplied.

“Right,” Chao-Ahn continued. “He has not eaten enough for some time too. There’s not much I can do like this; we have to stop. I need the big box with first aid stuff.”

“Looks like the CDC has to wait,” Buffy murmured.

 

They stopped at a roadside diner. It wasn’t ideal, much too exposed for Buffy’s taste, but it had to do for now. As they did their usual sweep, Chao-Ahn and Willow got to work on the survivor. After some hesitation, they simply cut off his clothes, leaving him in a pair of boxers that had seen better days. Chao-Ahn put in a line and hooked him up with one of their precious bags of ringer solution. They scrubbed him down as best as they could with cold water and checked his wound. The stump was badly infected and blackened, like someone had tried to burn it. After cleaning it with disinfectant and putting on a clean bandage, Chao-Ahn got out a vial containing penicillin. It was a powder and she and Willow studied the instructions to find out how it had to be prepared. Once they figured it out, Willow picked up the shredded garments and left. The whole group, except those on guard duty, had gathered in front of the bus.

“He’s alive, for now,” Willow said tiredly. Giles handed her a bottle of water and she drank, before she continued. “The wound from his missing hand is badly infected. Chao-Ahn is giving him penicillin, which might save or kill him, since we don’t know if he’s allergic. He seems to feel pain, since he got all twitchy when we cleaned up his injury, but since the only painkillers we have are pills there’s nothing we can do about that.”

“I wouldn’t bother,” Spike said, wrinkling his nose,” going by the smell he’s already got a bloody pharmacy in his system.”

Willow raised her eyebrows. “He’s on drugs? How do you know?”

Spike jerked his head towards the pile of clothes Willow had dropped. “Typical junkie stench; makes every self-respecting vamp lose their appetite. But if he’s been up on that roof for awhile, it might be already out of his system…”

“Did you tie him up?” Robin interrupted.”Because if he dies and turns…”

“Honestly? We didn’t think about it,” Willow answered.

“Xander and I have some handcuffs you can borrow, “Anya offered with a bright smile.

“I’ll get them…” Xander immediately headed to their van, blushing.

 

Soon they had the injured man securely handcuffed to a metal chain from Xander’s toolbox wrapped around the wooden beam of the lower bunk.

“Should he be considered guestage?” Andrew wondered.

“We’ll see; but if he makes it, I’m finally not the only guy with missing body parts,” Xander commented.

“Shouldn’t we get him some clothes?” Dawn asked. “I mean, semi-naked guy, handcuffed, in a bus full of girls; he might get the wrong impression when he wakes up.”

“I might have a pair of jeans,” Xander offered. “But I’m down to my last shirt; we definitely should do laundry more often.”

Dawn looked at Andrew. “Didn’t you get a ton of t-shirts from the comic store at the mall?”

“I’m not sure they’ll fit…”

Dawn crossed her arms and glared.

“…but I’m willing to lend one, but not the one with the Millennium Falcon!”

“Uhm, guys? Where I am supposed to sleep? With my bed being kinnda occupied...” Willow started hesitantly.

Dawn shrugged. “No worry, you can sleep with me…wait, that didn’t come out right…”

 

The following day Chao-Ahn announced her patient was out of immediate danger, although he was still unconscious. He was stable enough for them to move on, but they had to postpone their trip to the CDC at least until he woke up. The group had spent most of their time refueling the cars by siphoning gas from abandoned vehicles. During one of their fuel runs, they had discovered a small service road leading off into the woods and ending in a clearing. After some discussion Buffy decided to move there.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, I managed another one! This chapter contains a tiny bit of...not smut, just a little bit of making out. Nothing major, but the first time ever I've written something like that. I'm kind of nervous how it turned out. Thank you all for reading, kudos and comments. Your respons and feedback is great encouragment; thank you!

His mind drifted back to awareness and started to notice things. His mouth was dry, but he no longer felt like he was close to dying from thirst. The pain in his hand had lessened from flaming inferno to dull ache and the ground he was lying on felt softer and less hot than the roof. Merle slowly opened his eyes. He squinted in the dim light, trying to make out his surroundings. He was lying on some kind of narrow bunk bed, one of several on both sides of what reminded him of a prison bus. Peering down, he saw that he was dressed in unfamiliar clothing and the rag he had wrapped around his stump had been replaced with clean bandages. As he craned his neck, his fuzzy brain finally noticed the handcuffs and chain. Cursing inwardly, Merle attempted to sit up in the cramped space, He could hear a sharp intake of breath and a girl stepped into his line of view. A teenager with brown hair kept in a messy ponytail and large blue eyes, clutching a knife in her hand. The girl immediately relaxed after getting a look at his face.

“Sorry, thought you went zombie for a second,” she apologized, but didn’t put the knife away,” which Chao-Ahn repeatedly said wouldn’t happen, but…anyway, I’m Dawn. How are you?”

Her accent wasn’t local, but Merle couldn’t quite place it. Then he finally managed to interpret the stabbing ache in his lower body.

“Gotta take a piss.”

Dawn’s eyes widened. “Spike!” she called in a panicked voice.

Hurried footsteps approached. “Dawn! Everything alright?” a male voice with a British accent inquired.

“Yeah, it’s just… he’s awake and he has to pee! Do something!”

“And what I’m supposed to do? Do I look like soddin’ Florence Nightingale? Get Andrew.”

“Ok, he’s making dinner right now. You ask him to take over and I’ll put the finishing touch to the spaghetti sauce …” Dawn suggested.

“No way; that’ll lead to civil unrest and food poisoning; I’ve got it, Nibblet,” Spike relented.

While they squabbled, Merle had struggled into a sitting position. Dawn fished the key out of her pocket and unlocked the handcuffs. Merle moved to rub his left wrist, only to remember that he no longer had a right hand to do it. The whole world seemed to be spinning, now that he was sitting. Merle briefly closed his eyes again. Someone was hauling him to his feet and Merle caught the blurry image of a guy with bleached hair and a black t-shirt. He tried to walk, but his legs wouldn’t move, just tremble, so the guy – Spike? - dragged him of the bus and into the woods like he was nothing more than a sack of potatoes. Without a word Merle was deposited against a tree and Spike moved a few steps away. Leaning heavily on the tree Merle struggled to undo his pants with his left hand. It took a while, but he managed. He was about to zip up again, when the snap of a twig caught his attention. His head shot up, the sudden motion bringing on a fresh wave of dizziness. A figure approached through the trees and while Merle couldn’t see it clearly, the noises it was making were a dead giveaway. A walker was heading in his direction and he was caught with his pants down and without a weapon. Panic set in and he stumbled backwards, trying to get away, only to bump into Spike and land on his ass.

“Come on, you’ve got to be kidding me!” 

Spike's voice was tinged with annoyance. Seemingly unfazed, he threw away the cigarette he had been smoking and headed straight for the walker. Merle wasn’t sure about what he saw next; the guy didn’t even have a weapon. He just kicked the walker in the chest, throwing it against a tree and, while it tried to get up again, kneeled down next to it and ripped the walker’s head straight off its neck. The last thing Merle saw, before the world went black, was Spike smashing the head against the tree.

 

He was desperate. The walkers were getting closer. He tried to get his hand free, but it was no use, there was no way he could break the handcuffs. He frantically looked around. Officer Friendly smiled at him from the camp chair he was sitting on and got a beer from the cooler next to him.

“Maybe we should remove the handcuffs,” he mused and passed the beer to Daryl, who was lounging next to him, watching the scene with an amused smirk.

His brother opened the can. “We don’t know him; he might be dangerous.”

“Come on, he can’t even walk on his own right now…”

Merle’s eyes snapped open. He was back in the bunk bed, his left hand once again firmly attached to the chain. People were talking outside.

“…Spike had to basically carry him. And he’s only got one hand.”

The voice belonged to the teenager, Dawn.

“Maybe he isn’t dangerous, but we shouldn’t underestimate him either. It’s hard to tell, since someone tried to cauterize it with an open flame, but I’m pretty sure he cut of that hand himself and he did it with something that wasn’t very sharp, maybe a handsaw,” another female voice said.

“Eww, how can you tell?” Dawn asked.

“Years of hacking into the coroner’s office in Sunnydale. If you read enough autopsy reports you’re bound to pick up a few things.”

“So, I guess we unchain him and see how it goes.”

“And what do we tell him about…you know?” Dawn’s voice was hesitant. “I mean, he’s going to notice pretty soon. Do we get Giles to give him the big speech or what?”

“Yeah B., little sis is raising an interesting question; do we stick with all this secret identity shit like in the good ol’ zombie-free days or do we spill?”

“I don’t know. Maybe its best we say nothing and wait until he realizes something’s off.”

“Anyway, I better check on him and see if I can get him some food.”

Merle let his head sink back to the pillow. He wondered what kind of group he had ended up with. One thing was sure: they had saved his sorry ass. Merle was certainly grateful for that. It wasn’t easy to admit, but he had managed to really get himself into the shit this time. Of course, back when he hacked of his hand and managed to steal the truck from the quarry assholes he had thought he was the king of the world with his brilliant escape. Yeah, brilliant for someone high as a kite. Soon his wound had started to bleed again. Not much, but steady. Then the truck had run out of gas. Merle went into the store to look for supplies and then the damn walkers showed up. At this point he had been coming down from his high and already felt like shit. He had tried to shoot them, but he was shaking so bad that his aim was shit. He had barely managed to hold on to his gun and a water bottle as he climbed the ladder to the roof. Maybe the walkers would wander off, but of course they didn’t. After he ran out of water, he had kept that one last bullet and indented to just end it. Somehow he never got around to killing himself and then they found him. If he had come across someone in his situation, he wouldn’t have bothered. These people had, so for now, he would at least try to play nice. His musings were interrupted by approaching footsteps.

“Ok, I’m going to unchain you, but no funny business.”

He recognized the voice. She was the one who had made the guess about his hand. Not a teenager this time, but young anyway. Slender, with long, red hair. She carried a bowl and a bottle of water, which she set down on the floor and unlooked the handcuffs without hesitation. Merle struggled into a sitting position. It was easier this time. He still felt weak, but at least the world wasn’t spinning. The woman unscrewed the water bottle and gave it to him.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Merle. And you?”

“Willow.” She motioned towards his stump. “What happened?”

“Got in a tight spot.”

He didn’t elaborate and she didn’t ask. Instead she handed him the bowl. It contained oatmeal. Merle raised his eyebrows.

“I remember someone mentioning spaghetti?” he asked.

“Since we aren’t sure when you last ate something and since you are currently in my bed, I’d rather not have you puke all over it”, Willow answered.

He started to eat, which was awkward and slow, since he wasn’t used to do it with his left hand. Willow was silent and clearly nervous. She kept looking at him until she seemed to realize she was starring and then did her best to look anywhere but him. Merle welcomed the silence. Usually he had a hard time keeping quiet, especially when he was high, and managed to antagonize people as soon as he opened his mouth. Now, that he was sober, probably for the first time since this whole shit started, he realized that he had to be more careful. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again. He had to be realistic; right now his chances of surviving on his own were shit, so he had to get on friendly terms with these people. At least he seemed to have a better start than with the quarry group. Those had taken one look at him and Daryl and stuck up their noses, only tolerating their presence in case they needed some convenient muscle to do the grunt work.

 

Willow was ready to bang her head on the wall. Her she was, with the first human being they had encountered since this whole thing started right in front of her, and she had no idea what to say. Except asking some lame questions. Sure, Merle didn’t seem very talkative, but there had to be something? Ok, “The zombies seem to get especially bite-y in the morning, don’t you think?” wasn’t such good idea for a conversation starter. But why was she so tongue-tied? Granted, she was never good at meeting new people, but she used to babble when she was nervous, not go all mute. When did that happen? But then, when was the last time she actually met someone who was outside the whole supernatural thing? Willow came to the conclusion that she had lived inside a bubble, especially after she returned from England. When they met someone new, that person was either quickly absorbed into the Scooby bubble, like Robin or the Potentials, or soon drifted away, like that Janice girl Dawn used to hang out with. In fact, the last person she had gotten to know all on her own had been Tara. She snapped back to the present, when he put down the bowl, obviously finished with eating. Willow picked it up.

“Ok, uhm, we’re going to take a look at your injury now; be right back”, she said and made a hasty retreat.

Soon she came back, with her arms full of medical supplies and a Chinese girl in tow. Merle briefly wondered if there was some equal opportunity law shit that required every group of survivors to have at least one Chinese kid. 

“This is Chao-Ahn; since she’s the most qualified around her, she’s in charge of the medical stuff. Chao-Ahn, Merle”, Willow introduced the girl.

Merle had to suppress a disbelieving snort. That kid was supposed to be qualified? She had to be not much older than sixteen. Chao-Ahn didn’t say anything, but went straight to work and removed the iv needle still stuck on the inside of his right elbow. Next she added a generous amount of a brown liquid, which Merle recognized as iodine, to the bowl of water she had carried.

Willow frowned. “Sorry, I should have asked this before, but do you need something for the pain? Because this is probably going to hurt.”

Merle hesitated, but then he shook his head. No use to start again after he just got off that shit. He noticed that Willow was suddenly watching him closely.

“No, I think I’ll manage”, he answered.

The girls dumped his stump, bandages and all, into the bowl and let it soak before they started to peel off the gauze covering, followed by a thorough scrub down. They tried to be gentle, but it still hurt and Merle gritted his teeth.

“We managed to get most of the burnt skin off while you were still out, but there’s still some left”, Willow explained.

“Without the burn and infection I could have stitched it”, Chao-Ahn added,” but maybe we could still do. Make a cut here and here and pull the skin over, like they do when they amputate in surgery.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I’m fine, sugar”, Merle declined. Like hell he would volunteer as guinea pig for a kid playing doctor, even if she seemed to know what she was doing.

Chao-Ahn didn’t seem to be offended; she simply shrugged, removed the bowl and squinted at the wound.

“Infection is getting better, but you need to keep taking antibiotics”, she announced while Willow rewrapped the stump. She picked up a box from the pile of supplies and unceremoniously shoved a pill into his mouth, giving him a bottle of water to wash it down. “Penicillin; one every morning and evening until empty. Now you need to rest.”

They gathered their stuff and left. Merle crawled back into bed, cradling his stump, which hurt like hell by now. He wondered when he would meet their leader, because he was pretty sure he hadn’t yet. It could be the British guy, but somehow he doubted it. Had he really ripped off that walker’s head with his bare hands? Maybe he had hallucinated. Merle decided to take the kid’s advice to get some rest while he had the chance and tried to relax.

 

Buffy was sitting on the edge of the clearing, her back against a tree. Overhead, she could see the sky slowly turning red. Another day gone by and they were still alive, definitely a good thing. After Kennedy, Buffy had been terrified of losing more people. So far, they hadn’t and she was grateful. In fact, they had done pretty well after their disastrous start. No one was trying to play hero, everyone got along; even Spike, Giles and Robin seemed to have made some unspoken peace treaty. They even did find a survivor. Buffy wondered how that was going to work out. For now, the guy had been unconscious most of the time. She noticed Willow and Chao-Ahn packing away their medical supplies and waved them over.

“So, what’s the sitch?”

Chao-Ahn frowned, so Buffy clarified. “How’s he doing?”

“Pretty good, I think,” Willow answered.

“The injury looks good; it’s healing. We keep him on antibiotics and the infection is way better,” Chao-Ahn said. “It was good we gave him the single shot dosage in his iv; it really helped.”

“Did he tell you anything? Like how he ended up on top of that store?”

Willow shook her head. “Not really; his name is Merle, but otherwise he wasn’t very forthcoming with information. I think I’m really out of the loop when it comes to making small talk with people I just met during a zombie apocalypse. Oh, and when I offered him pain killers, he declined. Must have hurt big time when we cleaned the wound, but he didn’t make a peep.”

“Hm, Spike thought he might have a drug problem, so I guess it’s a good sign if he refuses them. He does have a bit of a redneck-macho-vibe going”, Buffy mused. “Chao-Ahn, you think he’s fit enough to tag along on a little supply run?”

The Chinese Slayer shrugged. “Possible. Maybe not tomorrow morning; I first need to see how he is then.”

“So we stay here?” Willow asked. “What about the CDC?”

“I’m planning to go on a scout mission with Faith, Robin and Spike tomorrow. I’d like to check out the area first. While we’re gone, Giles and some of the girls can take Merle along for a supply run. Remember the store we found him? I think there was another store further down the road, looked kind of outdoor-sy, you know, one of those hunting gear shops…”

“I want to come along when you go to the CDC”, Willow interrupted.

“Sorry, but that’s a no-go.” Willow started to protest, but Buffy held her hand up. “We’ve made it this far and I don’t want to take any risks. We’re probably not the only ones heading there and you heard what Spike and Robin said about downtown; this could be the same. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe they have some kind of refugee camp up and running, but maybe it’s a death trap. We always scout before we go in and it worked pretty good so far. I know you’re itching to get there and I know you probably could take out hundreds of zombies with just a nose twitch, but I just want to keep you safe.”

Willow drew a deep breath. “Ok”, she relented. “I don’t like it, but I stay back.”

Buffy was about to sit back down against the tree after Willow and Chao-Ahn left, but then she felt a familiar presence. She turned around scanned the surrounding woods until she spotted him. He never came up to her and asked straight away; he was still too uncomfortable with the whole thing. Spike simply lurked on the periphery until they were alone, then they just kinda drifted towards each other. With a sigh, Buffy moved further away from camp. This was getting more difficult every day. Not that Spike feeding off her was really a problem; her body seemed to be ok with the small amount of blood he took every time, but it was increasingly difficult to deal with his mouth on her skin. She was slowly turning into a sexually frustrated mess and he didn’t even seem to notice. A few days ago she had actually moved her head in an attempt to kiss him. That should have been a clear signal, but he had moved away quickly. Stupid stubborn vampire! Did she have to knock him out and chain him up to get the message across? When she finally reached him, he was leaning against a tree, trying to look casual. Buffy stopped right in front of him and tilted her head to the side. When Spike bent his head, she firmly told herself to get a grip. She had to focus on the next day, when they would finally get their first look on the CDC, but as soon as Spike’s mouth touched her neck all coherent thought was gone. She didn’t feel any pain when he bit her and the slight movement as he drank sent tingles down her spine. Her mind was filled with vivid memories of what else he could do with his mouth and she couldn’t suppress a moan. All too soon it was over and Spike licked up the few drops of blood that had trickled down her neck. When he started to move away, Buffy had enough. She grabbed his head and smashed her mouth on his, not bothered by the metallic taste of her own blood on his lips. He froze for a second, but then he eagerly returned the kiss. When they broke up, so Buffy had a chance to catch her breath, she found herself pinned against a tree with her legs wrapped around Spike.

“You know”, he whispered, touching his forehead to hers,” I’ve wanted to do this for weeks.”

Buffy smacked his head. “And why didn’t you?”

“Well”, Spike started to kiss down her neck, “after all, I was the one telling you we should take it slow; just be friends…”

“Worst idea, ever”, Buffy groaned and threw her head back to give him better access.

“…and I didn’t want to disappoint you”, he finished, working his way back up to her mouth.

“God, I can’t wait ‘till we reach the CDC…”

Spike drew back and looked at her quizzically.

“Whatever there is, I bet they have actual rooms. With doors you can close and look. I plan on dragging you off to one as soon as we get the chance.”

“I like that idea”, Spike growled, kissing her again.

Buffy moved her hands down his back and slid them under his shirt. In her mind, responsible Buffy was trying to tell her that what they were doing was a bad idea, after all, they were in the woods and there might be zombies lurking nearby. Horny Buffy told her to shut up.

“Ahm, Spike?” Dawn’s voice was like a bucket of cold water and they quickly disentangled. “Giles is looking for you; you were supposed to go on watch like, fifteen minutes ago.”

Spike took off and Buffy had to grin at his dear-in-the-headlights expression. She smoothed down her shirt. Dawn had her arms crossed, holding a flashlight.

“What?” Buffy snapped defensively, seeing the evil smirk on her sister’s face.

“I just realize; I won’t have to do laundry for quite a while. Vi, Rona, Chao-Ahn and Caridad will be pissed. Faith is going to be royally pissed.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

The smirk widened.

“Since I was the one catching you and Spike making out first, I won the bet. And I might add that I’m glad I haven’t found you say…five minutes later. Then I’d probably need trauma counseling…”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!

Merle was alone when he woke up. Judging by the light, it was morning. He crawled out of bed, stood up cautiously and stretched. By now the dizziness was entirely gone and the pain in his stump had receded to an acceptable level. He had slept like log for nearly the whole night, only waking up once, when someone had used his bed for leverage to climb up to the top bunk. At one point the chain and handcuffs had been removed completely and he hadn’t even noticed. Since no one seemed to bother to keep an eye on him, he decided to snoop around a bit. The first thing he noticed was that the group had taken great care to secure the bus, which he now recognized as a school bus. Every window was covered with chain-link fence and from what he could see; it wasn’t just haphazardly slapped on, but carefully mounted. The bunk beds lining both sides of the bus were custom build. Merle peered underneath the bed he had been sleeping in. There were two plastic boxes underneath, one labeled “Dawn”, the other one “Willow”. He pulled out the “Dawn” box. It was crammed with clothes, toiletries, a few books, and a stack of CDs and, strangely, some DVDs. He pushed it back and looked up. From a hook right in front of his nose dangled a pair of very high heeled black sandals with red soles. There were similar hooks along the row of beds, some with clothes, and some with bags that suspiciously looked like that overpriced designer shit broads seemed to be so fond off. It looked like someone had written on the rear window, but he couldn’t read it from the distance. Underneath, there was some kind of wooden bench. Merle went to the back. Not only one, but several people had written on the window. It was a list of rules. Some were pretty self-explanatory, like “Don’t die!” others were plain silly, considering the current state of the world like “Only one Star Wars movie per week!” or “No Dawn in the kitchen under any circumstances!”. Some were slightly bizarre, like “The family that slays together, stays together”. There was a cable running down from the ceiling and on closer inspection the bench turned out to be a build- in chest with three separate compartments. The cable disappeared inside the smallest. Curious, he opened the lid. Inside were a car battery and a shitload of cables and electronics. A padded bag was attached to the inside of the lid. When he unzipped it, he found a laptop. A low whistle escaped Merle as he opened the larger compartment in the middle. It was filled with all kinds of weapons. There were knives, a few swords, a crossbow and short wooden sticks, sharpened at one end. He picked up a double-sided ax, which looked like a movie prop, but the thing was surprisingly heavy and obviously the real deal. The inside of the lid was covered with Polaroid pictures. He recognized some of the people on them. There was Dawn, the teenager, hugging the sandals he had seen earlier to her chest with a dreamy look on her face. The Chinese girl, grinning into the camera with several other girls. Dawn again, this time together with the redhead and a blond. The pictures seemed to be quite recent and, Merle guessed by the background, had been all taken at the same place. The last compartment turned out to be the laundry basket. Having satisfied his curiosity, he decided to venture outside.

Stepping of the bus, Merle looked around. The school bus and four vans were parked forming a wide circle and guards were posted on top of each one, a fast improvement over the lax security he had seen at the quarry. Back there, security had consisted of that old guy, Dale, lounging on top of his RV, while everyone else wandered all over the place like they were on some fucking camping trip. In the middle of the space corralled by the vehicles was a campfire; a young guy wearing some nerdy comic shirt and a woman were messing around with two large frying pans. Merle’s eyes widened and his stomach growled. They were flipping fucking pancakes! He could hardly remember when he had last eaten pancakes and there was already a large pile waiting on a folding table, along with a stack of plastic plates, mugs and a pile of cutlery. Further away, a guy wearing an eye patch was carefully pouring water from a large pot into a row of thermos, each with a coffee filter on top. Seeing the guy with the comic shirt gave him an idea where his new clothes had come from. He looked down. The jeans were too short, but still comfortable, but the ridicules Star Wars shirt was way too tight and short. It hardly covered his stomach. He’d definitely needed to look for something new as soon as possible. Eye patch came over, carrying the thermos and placed them on the table.

“Good morning, you must be Merle, I’m Xander”, he introduced himself. “I see you’ve already learned the most important rule around here; get to the food early, while it’s still there. Coffee?”

Not waiting for an answer he poured a mug and handed it to Merle, before getting one for himself.

Chattering voices could be heard and Xander sighed.

“Here goes the peace and quiet. We better get out of the way of the feeding frenzy.”

He moved away from the table and sat down on top of a rock. Merle, not knowing what else to do, trailed behind and sat down on the ground next to him. The voices grew louder and a group of girls entered the clearing. Merle watched them, as they crowded around the table. Most of them had towels slung over their shoulders and seemed to be in their late teens, but he spotted one who did look not older than thirteen or fourteen. It was like some kind of Girl Scout meeting, minus the uniforms. Following the girls at a distance was a second, smaller group of people. Merle recognized the Brit, who had escorted him into the woods and the redhead. The rest of the group was made up by a hot brunette, with some really nice tits almost spilling out of her thank top, a guy somewhere around his own age, a black guy with a shaved head and the blond he had seen in the picture with Red and Dawn. As he watched them settling down to eat, a plate full of pancakes was thrust in his line of vision. There was even a generous amount of syrup on top. He looked up and found the woman with the curly blond hair, who had been cooking breakfast earlier, standing in front of him.

“Hi, I’ve heard that it is considered polite to serve guests”, she announced with a bright smile.

She handed a second plate to Xander and was about to walk away, when she turned back and added.

“By the way, Xander and I really appreciate to get our handcuffs back. I kinnda missed them”, she said the same way people would talk about the nice weather.

Xander watched her retreating form with a fond smile.

“Anya, my girlfriend”, he explained. “She can be a bit straightforward sometimes.”

“No kidding”, Merle muttered and turned his attention to the food. He concentrated on eating with his left hand, determined not to look like some clumsy ass in front of everyone. Occasionally his eyes wandered back to the group of grown-ups. He guessed those were the ones calling the shots around here and it seemed like they were having a powwow. Judging from the looks in his direction, he was the subject. The next interruption came in the form of the Chinese kid. She checked his bandages and asked him some questions. Seemingly satisfied, she reminded Merle to take his antibiotics and then went straight to the group he had been watching earlier. Crouching down between Blondie and the older guy, she was obviously reporting on his state of health. Breakfast wound down and Merle expected the older guy to come over, but instead the tiny blond walked in his direction, after refilling her coffee.

 

Buffy got some more coffee and took the opportunity to give their guest a thorough once over. Out and about he looked quite intimidating, even with only one hand. Tall, scruffy and muscle-ey, he sure was a guy one shouldn’t mess with. She chewed her lower lip. Buffy had no idea how she was supposed to do this. She knew that looks could be deceiving; however she had to be as sure as possible the guy didn’t pose a threat. So far they had been lucky. There hadn’t been a situation where they had to fight humans and Buffy would like to keep it that way as long as possible. Sure, she wasn’t intimidated and the guy wouldn’t stand a chance against any of them, even with two hands, should things turn ugly. But if it came down to kill or be killed… She knew that some in their group wouldn’t hesitate to act if it was necessary, but the girls weren’t ready to fight against humans. Hell, Rona was usually strong and could be quiet opinionated, but while Willow and Chao-Ahn worked on Merle…once the adrenalin had worn off, the girl had a major freak out because she had been this close to accidentally killing a human. It had taken Buffy a while to calm her down. No, they weren’t ready to face a human threat.

“Hi, I’m Buffy Summers”, she started the conversation, sitting down cross-legged next to him. Xander had disappeared when he saw her coming over. “So, Merle, you got a last name? Or is it just Merle, like “Madonna” or “Cher”?”

“It’s Dixon.”

“And, Merle Dixon, what’s your story?” she asked.

Merle started telling her how he got out of Atlanta with his brother. How he and Daryl met the group at the quarry. Of course he left out the part where he was planning to rob them. He told her a bit about life at the quarry and about their run to downtown Atlanta. He freely admitted to his drug use, since they seemed to have already guessed that little tidbit, but made it like he had started using as some way to cope with the situation. When he told her about being left handcuffed on that roof in Atlanta, with walkers closing in on him until he had to hack of his own hand to survive, her expression turned grim.

“So the fucking hand had been bleeding again for some time when I ran out of gas. Went into the store to look for supplies and ran into some walkers. By then, I was pretty fucked up. I made it up that ladder and must have passed out at one point”, he finished his tale. “How about you? You’re from California, right?” He gestured to a van’s license plate. “How did you end up here?”

From the way she chewed on her lower lip before answering he could tell she wasn’t going to give him the full story either.

“We’re from Sunnydale; small town; kinnda isolated, even if it was not far from LA. I was a counselor at the local high school. Robin”, she pointed to the bald black guy, “was the headmaster. Funny thing is we were completely clueless about the outbreak, because Sunnydale had its own problems. There was a whole series of earthquakes, getting progressively worse. Naturally people started to freak and leave town, although there never was an official evacuation. Friends had kinnda gathered at my place from the start and once everything just descended into complete mayhem we put everyone on a school bus and got the hell out. Turned out we did the right thing, because that’s when the big one hit and the whole town just disappeared into a giant hole in the ground. I guess they would have renamed into Sunnydale Bay by now. We stopped at an old motel outside town and that’s where we encountered the first zombies and realized apocalypse season had come early. The motel had been used as a military outpost of some kind and we found enough information among the stuff there to figure out what was going on. The new mall had escaped the sinkhole, so we relocated there, but it was clear from the beginning we couldn’t stay there permanently. Willow had the idea to go to the CDC, so we prepared as best as we could and hit the road.”

Merle frowned. “You call them zombies?”

Buffy shrugged. “What else should we call them? Dead body walking and eating the living, that’s like the textbook definition for zombie, don’t you think? So, Merle, just to make this clear; you are not a prisoner. You’re free to leave whenever you want.”

They both knew that the statement was just for show, since he currently had the survival chance of a snowball in hell, but Merle appreciated it anyway.

Looking pointedly at his bandaged stump, he said:” I guess I’d stay.”

“Ok. Anything else you could tell me? What did you do before this whole mess started? Any special skills that might come in handy?”

Merle tried to be modest. “Had a few jobs as a mechanic, mostly motorcycles. Did a brief stint in the army once, but got into an argument with a sergeant. Bashed the assholes nose in, which resulted in me spending some time behind bars until they kicked me out. I can track and I’m a decent hunter; spent most of my life in these woods.”

Buffy had smiled briefly when he mentioned the sergeant. “Ok, the tracking might come in handy. We’re doing pretty well in the food department, so there’s no need to hunt yet. We loaded up on food at the mall and restocked along the way. Actually, we’re doing the veggie thing right now; meat kinnda lost its appeal, once we had to witness the zombies having their lunch break.”

Merle nodded. Food was food as far as he was concerned.

“I’d like to put down some ground rules”, she continued. “To be honest, I’m pretty sure there are some parts in your story you’ve left out and I get the impression that you’re not exactly a saint. That’s ok; I think everyone has some dark spots on their resume, no judgment here. You get to start with a clean slate, but if you start taking drugs again it’s game over. We can’t afford having some loose cannon around. I understand that there isn’t much you can do with your injury right now. Spike and Andrew have been dealing with the technical stuff, but we would appreciate your input. You’ve gotta train your left arm, I guess. I don’t know, maybe we’ll figure something out for your missing hand. Word of advice for the future; we are all equals here and there is nothing of this man or women’s work stuff. When it comes down to the itty gritty, everyone does what needs to be done. We clear?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“So, welcome to the team, Merle.” Buffy stuck out her hand. He started to move his right arm out of habit, but then he remembered and quickly extended his left. They shook hands and Buffy excused herself. She returned to her previous spot between the brunette hottie and the older guy and, after a brief exchange, sugartits got to her feet.

“Listen up, everyone! As you know, Robin, B., Spike and I are going to check out the CDC today. Now, I realize that our new boy Merle over there could need some stuff, so Giles will take him on a little supply run along with Dawn, Rona, Vi and Meredith. Everyone else, I’m sure you know how to keep yourself busy.”

So, he was deemed ready for a supply run already. Merle guessed that this was supposed to be some kind of test. He remembered his medication, which was still on his bed, so he went and took one of the pills. On his way back, the Chinese kid brushed past him, carrying a basket already half filled with laundry and with a scowl on her face. Dawn and two other girls were standing by the older guy with the salt and pepper hair. Merle frowned. If that was supposed to be the team for their run it didn’t exactly inspire confidence. The guy with the glasses and receding hairline must be Giles and he looked like he spent most of his life pushing nothing more than pencils. Next to Dawn was another redhead, with chin-length hair. Girl number three was bouncing on her feet in excitement and made him question everyone’s sanity, since she turned out to be the kid he had noticed at breakfast. Up close, she looked even younger, with light brown hair in a long braid. She had a crossbow slung over her shoulder and looked like she was hardly strong enough to carry it, even less use it. Dawn had a katana on her back, while the redhead carried a machete. Everyone was dressed in a variation of the cargo pants and t-shirt combo the girls seemed to favor, with the exception of Giles. He wore jeans and had a sword as a weapon. Merle noticed that every girl had what looked like a standard issue army knife strapped to her leg. As he joined the group, Giles had already launched into a mission briefing.

“According to Spike there should be a black SUV with sufficient gas at the parking lot”, he said, acknowledging Merle’s presence with a curt nod.

Merle rolled his eyes. Turnes out the guy was another Brit, but going by the accent, one that seemed to be born with a silver spoon in his mouth and a stick shoved up his ass. He let his gaze wander. Spike and the black guy were standing next to two motorcycles, waiting for Buffy. The hottie was with them, carrying another crossbow. The black guy had the double sided ax he had seen on the bus strapped to his back. Merle didn’t see a weapon on Spike, but maybe he had a gun stashed away somewhere. Listening with one ear to the stuffy Brit, he finally spotted Buffy next to one of the vans. She was talking to a black girl with dreads. The girl nodded and Buffy handed her the strangest weapon Merle had ever seen. The thing was ax-like, with a long handle that turned into a sharpened end. It was red, like a fireman’s ax and the handle had some kind of metal ornaments. The black chick took it with an expression of awe while Buffy shouldered a crossbow and followed her towards them. Once they reached them, Buffy unceremoniously pushed the girl in front of him.

“Rona, this is Merle; Merle, this is your life insurance. Until further notice, she’s calling the shots, at least as far as you’re concerned.”

Merle bristled. There was no way Merle Dixon would take orders from a black girl less than half his age! He opened his mouth to protest, but quickly shut it when he noticed Buffy watching him intently from under lowered eyelashes. Next, she produced another army knife and attached it to one of the belt loops on Merle’s jeans. Great, like that would help him. Buffy turned to Rona.

“Where he goes, you go.”

The girl briskly nodded. Buffy addressed the rest of the group.

“You got everything? Weapons, bags?”

Merle almost expected her to check if they had their lunch bags.

Dawn made a face. “Yes, mom!”

“Ok, see you later and good luck”, Buffy said as headed over to her own team. She climbed on the back of Spike’s motorcycle and they speed of in a cloud of dust.

 

The sun was already high in the sky as they walked down the service road. A slight breeze was rustling in the trees and it would have been peaceful if it weren’t for the possibility of death lurking around every corner. Giles was at the front, followed by Dawn and the two other girls. Merle tried to hang back, but Rona wouldn’t have any of that and stubbornly stayed right next to him. Ahead Dawn was complaining about being still babied by her sister. Merle was slightly surprised Dawn and Buffy turned out to be sisters, but then again there weren’t that many similarities between him and Daryl either. They soon reached the diner and Giles looked around the small parking lot until he spotted a black SUV with a “soccer mom” sticker in the rear window. They walked over and keeping an eye on their surroundings Giles opened the door on the driver’s side. He didn’t bother with searching for the key, but went right to hotwiring the car. Dawn slid in the passenger seat and began riffling through the contents of the glove compartment.

“Hey, Britney Spears!” Dawn exclaimed, holding up a CD case.

“Certainly not!” Giles answered without looking up.

With a pout, Dawn shoved the CD into the sports bag she was carrying. The car sputtered to live in a surprisingly short time. Giles got behind the wheel, while Merle was asked to take the passenger seat. The girls squeezed into the back. Maybe an hour later the white truck in front of the convenience store came into view. Giles slowed down. Thankfully, the zombies they had encountered the last time had moved on. 

“Do you want to go back in?” Giles asked.

“Na, there wasn’t much left in there”, Dawn answered. “Maybe on our way back, but right now I want to find the shop Buffy mentioned.”

They continued down the road, looking at the buildings.

“Hey, I think I found it!” Vi pointed to a brick house, a small parking lot separating it from the street. Giles turned into the parking lot and stopped.

“You stay here”, Rona told Merle as the girls climbed out of the car. Giles opened the door, but Rona held him back as well. “You keep an eye on him.”

Merle had to admit, the way they moved was quite impressive. The four girls spread out and took a good look around. Dawn and the redhead named Vi went up to the door, while Rona and the little one provided cover. Vi banged on the door and they paused to listen. After silent nods all around she opened the door and they paused again, before she and Dawn entered while the other two moved closer. The minutes stretched, but in the end Dawn appeared in the doorway again and made a signal with her hand. That must have been the go-ahead sign, because Giles got out of the car. With Rona and the other girl bringing up the rear, both men entered the shop. Rona stayed by the door, but gestured to Merle to go ahead. Like he needed fucking permission from her. The inside of the store reminded him of Shawn’s hunting shop where he and Daryl used to spent a lot of their Sundays, drinking beer and swapping stories with his buddies. Ok, Daryl never talked much, just hung around in the background. On the left side, right next to entrance was a small clothing section. The wall behind it was lined with shelves containing fishing equipment. The opposite side was made up of a large camping section with shelves filled with tents, sleeping bags and other stuff. Giles didn’t waste time and started to pick up the propane bottles still left. The front of the store looked to be relatively untouched, but the back was a whole different story. Broken glass and empty ammunition boxes littered the floor. Merle had hoped to find a gun, but it seemed he was out of luck. The racks behind the counter in the back were cleaned out. The entire wall above the cash register in the back was taken up by a display case. The glass front had been smashed in and only a confederate flag had remained, while the hooks were empty. Some desperate souls had even taken the antique weapons that had probably once been displayed. The wall across the fire arms counter held various things, a few hunting knives among them. The kid with the crossbow made a beeline for them.

“A girl can never have enough sharp, pointy objects”, she explained.

“Look, shiny!” Vi shouted, pointing to a crossbow peeking out from underneath a shelf. When she brought it up to her shoulder and took aim, her face fell. “Damn, it’s all wonky and misaligned!”

“Take it anyway; maybe when can fix it or use it for spare parts.” Rona suggested.

The little girl, whose name Merle remembered to be Meredith had wandered behind the counter. She picked something from the rubble and held it up with a frown.

“What’s that?”

Vi looked up from the crossbow.

“I think that’s a bayonet. They used to attach those to rifles, so the soldiers could stab the enemy with them”, she explained.

Meredith shrugged and tossed it in her canvas bag. Merle had inched closer to the fire arms counter and looked around. Nothing left. He looked down; he saw something on the floor underneath the counter. He crouched down. It was a gun, small enough to be pushed under the counter, so the looters missed it. Merle picked it up. Now all he needed to find was some ammo…

“Leave it.”

He turned around and saw Meredith starring at him.

“Pardon?”

“I said, leave it. We don’t do guns”, she said. There was a hard edge to her voice and she suddenly looked much older.

“Well, I do.”

“Then you’re stupid and suicidal. Haven’t you noticed? Gunfire draws them; shooting a gun is like telling every zombie in the area “Hey, here I am, come and get me! Free lunch!” And how are you planning to reload this thing with only one hand?”

Merle squared his shoulders and drew himself up to full height.

“I’m ex-army; I’ll think I’ll fucking know how to.”

The girl had the nerve to snort.

“Yeah, right.” She paused. “You know, there was this girl in our group, at the beginning. Her name was Kennedy. We found guns and she thought having one would give her an advantage. Kennedy knew how to handle one; was a good shooter. I’ve seen her taking out one zombie after another; perfect headshots, each and every one of them. I also heard her screams, when they ripped her to shreds. It was a large group and when she started shooting, they all seemed to converge on her, until she got swarmed and went under. By the way, she had two hands.”

The shop was silent and Merle felt everyone looking at him. He glared at the girl. He didn’t want to give in. But then, he didn’t have ammo for the piece. Was it worth it to antagonize them over a gun he couldn’t even use? The girl had pointed out an uncomfortable truth. Merle wouldn’t be able to reload one-handed. Someone would need to help him and it looked like nobody would offer.

“Whatever”, he sneered and threw the gun on the counter. Trying to keep his dignity, he stalked back to the front of the shop and grabbed a sleeping bag off the shelf. He tossed it on the pile off stuff they had collected by the door. He had to be prepared, because now that he was getting better, he knew he would be expected to vacate his bed on the bus. Next, Merle turned his attention to the clothing section. Dawn was already browsing the racks, stuffing a pair of cargo pants into her bag. She eyed the rain ponchos by the fishing equipment thoughtfully and then added them too. Merle tossed a few pairs of socks into the sports bag he had been given and checked the size of a pair of cargo pants. Seeing as they might fit, he packed them up. He was about to add a shirt, when he heard Dawn shout.

“No!”

Wondering what kind of offence he had now committed, he looked at her.

“Beige? Seriously?” Dawn ripped the shirt from his hand and waved it in front of his face with an affronted expression. “That is so not your color!”

They descended on him like a pack of starved walkers. In the blink of an eye he was surrounded by girls. Merle didn’t stand a chance. He was turned this way and that way as they held up clothing to him, debating styles and colors. It was over as suddenly as it had started and he was left standing in a daze, a bag stuffed with clothes at his feet. His eyes caught Giles, but the man just shrugged.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just like to say thank you again for all the lovley comments. You guys rock! When I started with this story I never imagined getting this much positive feedback. Up next: Merle keeps wondering, things don't go as planed oh, and zombies of course! Enjoy!

They dumped their bags into the trunk of SUV. Meredith squinted and pointed across the main street.

“I think there’s a drug store.”

Dawn followed her gaze. A small side road branched of the main street right across from the parking lot. The building on the left side was a one storey brick building, much like the hunting store, but larger. Facing the main street was a beauty parlor, a sign in the window offering a free hand massage with every manicure, but further along the side road a sign announced a drug store located in the same building. On the opposite corner was a nondescript concrete building with fading green paint. The shop there looked like it had been empty for a long time, the windows covered with yellowing paper.

Dawn shrugged. “Worth a try, I guess.”

Giles looked uneasy. “So far things have been going smoothly; maybe we shouldn’t tempt our luck and return to camp. Or is there something in particular you’re looking for?”

“Yeah, tampons”, Rona said.

“Oh, then…” Giles took of his glasses and started to clean them with his t-shirt.

They crossed the street and cautiously moved along until they reached the drug store. Dawn banged on the door and they listened. Immediately groans could be heard.

“Ok, so that one isn’t empty”, Dawn muttered and peered through the glass door. “Damn, I can’t see them; guess they’re somewhere in the back.”

Nervously the group watched as she slowly pushed the door open, or better, tried to open it. There was a horrible screeching noise and the door got stuck. The groaning and shuffling intensified. There was the sound of splintering wood.

“Shit, that’s not coming from inside, it’s coming from…” Rona didn’t finish her sentence.

Simultaneously, they turned around, looking at the other side of the street. There was a long, dilapidated wooden fence. A fence that seemed to come alive as it shuddered and rattled until its whole length collapsed on the street. The zombies poured out like a tidal wave, too many to count. The ones at the front had gone down with the fence and others stumbled over them, but most of them managed to stay upright and moved towards them.

 

Merle was panicking. It was like his worst nightmare had turned into reality, like he was back on that roof in Atlanta. The walkers had spread out on the street, cutting off their escape routes and surrounded them in a semi-circle. He barely noticed Rona shoving him back against the building. They had to get out of here; they had to get inside the damn store. Merle threw his whole weight against the door. The glass splintered and he was dimly aware of the pain flaring up in his stump. The breaking glass had cut his shoulder and blood was trickling down his right arm, but the door was still stuck. He fumbled for the knife Buffy had given him and whirled around. He wouldn’t go down without a fight. What he saw made his jaw drop. Giles had his sword out, splitting heads with deadly precision. Dawn decapitated a walker, stabbed the head landing at her feet and moved on to the next one in one fluid motion. But that was nothing compared to the other three girls. Daryl was damn good with a crossbow, but nothing compared to Meredith. The girl didn’t seem to aim at all, like she just knew the arrow would find its target. Vi and Rona moved with incredible speed, leaving a trail of corpses behind. Merle just stood and starred. Meredith had gotten surrounded and the walkers got too close for the crossbow, so she simply dropped it and drew her knife. She stabbed the head of the male walker with the missing lower jaw right in front of her, but two more were advancing, while what once used to be a woman in a bathrobe came up from behind. Merle tried to warn her, but Rona was faster.

“Meredith, catch!” she called and tossed her axe.

The girl jumped and caught the weapon mid-air. As she landed, the blade sliced the walker in front of her in two halves, while she simultaneously pierced the skull of the woman at her back with the pointed end of the handle. Coming up from her crouching position, she twirled the axe and took out the second walker in front of her with the pointed side. From the corner of his eye Merle caught movement. A fat walker, his intestines dangling from his stomach, had managed to sneak up on them while Rona was distracted. He reacted without thinking, pushing her aside and shoving his knife straight into one milky eye. He nearly lost the grip on his weapon as the walker went down and cursed. When Merle looked up, Rona gave him an almost feral grin.

“Hey, thanks; missed that one.”

Tightening his grip on the knife, he grinned back. From that moment on, everything turned into a blur. Somehow he ended up fighting back to back with Rona, who had switched to using her knife after tossing the axe to Meredith. He just kept stabbing everything in front of him, trying to get them in the eye or from underneath their snapping jaws since he had to use his weaker left hand. Another walker went down and the knife stuck in its eye socket nearly slipped from his hand. Merle looked up, getting aware of the silence. It was over. The street was littered with walkers and hacked of body parts. Everyone just stood there, surveying the carnage. Beyond what was left of the fence Merle could see overturned cots and IV stands. Apparently the backyard of the empty store had been used as makeshift hospital during the outbreak and then abandoned, leaving the turned victims trapped inside the fence.

“Bloody hell; everyone alright?” Giles asked, trying to catch his breath.

“Peachy with a side of keen”, Dawn answered, whipping her katana on a severed leg and re-sheeting it.

“What happened to your shoulder?” Rona asked as she gave Merle a once over.

“The glass broke when I tried to get the fucking door open”, he answered.

Meredith sauntered over, crossbow in one hand and returning the red axe to Rona.

“So I guess we should get some stain remover or Andrew is going to have a major nerd crisis.”

Dawn giggled. “Yeah, red alert!”

“So, let’s go shopping!” Rona announced and pushed open the door, which all of the sudden wasn’t stuck anymore.

Merle thought he could hear Giles mutter something like “The world is doomed”.

 

Inside the drug store the girls, seemingly unperturbed by what just happened, set to work while Giles stood guard by the door. The place had remained untouched, either because it was easily overlooked or because people had known what lurked across the street. Rona had picked up a shopping basket and raided the feminine products section, while Dawn stocked up on toilet paper and tooth brushes. Merle had grabbed a bottle of shower gel, since he suspected they only had the flowery girly stuff back at the camp. After that, the adrenalin from the fight had worn off and exhaustion set in. The pain in his non-existent hand was back full force and the cuts on his shoulder were burning. He joined Giles by the door, sitting on the floor. Dawn tossed a few more things into her basket and then picked up disinfectant, bandages and a pack of makeup wipes.

“Ok, take off the shirt, so I can check those cuts”; she instructed, as she kneeled down next to Merle.

He couldn’t get out of the shirt with one hand, so Dawn had to help him. She cleaned the cuts with disinfectant and used the makeup wipes to remove the dried blood from his arm.

“Not too bad; most of them are superficial and have already started to close up on their own,” she said. She applied band-aids on the two deeper cuts that needed to be covered and picked up the discarded t-shirt. Wrinkling her nose, she balled it up and threw it into the basket. She noticed that Meredith, Vi and Rona had drifted towards the makeup displays.

“Hey, if there’s Maybelline mascara, the yellow one, get one for Buffy; I kinnda borrowed her last one and she wasn’t too happy.”

“Will do”, Vi answered, studying the two bottles of nail polish in her hand, before adding both to her shopping basket.

“Is this really necessary?” Giles asked in an exasperated tone.

Vi turned to face him.

“It’s the end of the world and I want to look good!” she declared, hands on her hips.

Dawn looked at Merle with concern. He had his eyes closed and was leaning back against the wall.

“Do you want me to look for some painkillers?” she asked.

Merle shook his head. “No, its ok.”

With a huff, Dawn sat down next to him.

“Men; seriously, I don’t get you. You get a cold and act like you’re about to die any minute, but severed limbs are “just a little scratch”.”

Merle chuckled. “I just want to keep a clear head.”

“I doubt they have anything stronger than Tylenol in this place anyway”, Dawn snorted. She got up and browsed the aisles, returning with a can of soda and a pack of pills.

“I was wrong; they’ve actually got extra strength Tylenol! So stop being so testosterone-y and take it!”

She handed him two pills and the opened soda and sat down again. Merle obediently swallowed them.

“Care to explain what the fuck happened out there?” he asked, looking straight into her eyes.

“What do you mean? Wasn’t it kinnda obvious?” Dawn tensed up at his question. “A bunch of zombies got bite-happy and we kicked their asses big time.”

“Cut the crap, Princess, I’ve never seen a bunch of girls fight like that, hell, I’ve never seen grown women do the stuff you did.”

“Uhm, too much TV and violent video games?” Dawn suggested.

She cast a pleading look in Giles’ direction, but he had his eyes fixed on the street and didn’t catch it.

“Look, you’ve got a problem with woman who could kick your ass? Because that…”

Merle held up his arms. “Don’t get you’re panties in a bundle; I’d just like to know how you learned it.”

Dawn chewed her lower lip, a gesture mimicking her sister and telling Merle that he wouldn’t get a straight answer.

“Ok, so I guess you already know that we’re from Sunnydale, California. Now, the town may have looked like your average picture perfect suburbia, but it was far from it. We had a major problem with gangs …on PCP… and the local police was beyond useless. So you were stuck with either spending your teenage years holed up in your room or you had to learn to defend yourself.”

Merle nodded. A nice story. Doped up old Merle would have probably bought it, thinking “Yeah, whatever”, but he noticed that his freshly detoxed self was much better at reading people. It was crystal clear that Dawn desperately wanted to change the subject, so he let it drop. He wasn’t sure if it was because the majority of the group was female and he had some kind of poor cripple bonus going, but compared with the quarry fuckers they seemed to get along pretty good and he liked to keep it that way.

 

They drove all the way back to camp, since nobody wanted to carry the stuff back from the diner. During their absence rope had been strung up between the cars and laundry was hung up to dry in the gentle breeze. Most of the camps inhabitants were lounging around in the clearing, some of them reading books or comics. A small group of girls were playing cards. Giles parked the SUV and they got out of the car. Meredith held her arm up and sniffed it.

“Eww, Eau the Zombie”, she complained. “I don’t care how cold that water is; I so need to wash up.”

A Latina girl left the group playing cards and came over.

“Welcome back…what the hell happened?” she asked, taking in their slightly gore-spattered appearance.

“Stumbled on a nest of zombies; no biggie. As you can see, we’re back in one piece”, Vi explained.

“Yeah, and Merle isn’t too bad with a knife. In fact, he was kinnda awesome. Give it a week and we’ll have him up to scratch,” Rona added.

Merle blinked. He wasn’t sure if that statement was supposed to be a compliment or an insult.

“Need help to unload?” the girl asked. “Because I really should get out of that poker game; the stakes are getting a bit high for my taste. Chao-Ahn seems to be hell bent on getting rid of laundry duty.”

Dawn smiled serenely. “Thanks for the offer, Caridad, but I want to clean up first. We can pack away the stuff later. But Andrew’s R2D2 shirt got some bloodstains; there’s stain remover somewhere in there”, she motioned to the trunk,” maybe you could give it a soak.”

“Damn, and here I thought I got away from laundry…maybe I can pass it off to Willow. She could use some distraction; she’s been super-hyper ever since they left for the CDC.”

“Can you blame her?” Dawn said. “So, clean up. Ladies first, I think. Don’t worry, we’ll make it quick.”

Rona had freed her dreads from their ponytail and looked at them critically.

“At least I didn’t get any in my hair this time. Zombie guts and dreads are definitely non-mixy.”

The girls headed for the bus to gather fresh clothes. Merle got the bag with his new wardrobe out of the trunk. Throwing the bag on his bunk, he wondered how long he would be allowed to keep the bed. He sat down on the steps of the bus and looked around. There was another thing he hadn’t really noticed: despite the relaxed atmosphere, everyone had some kind of weapon within easy reach. He approved; a lot of people at the quarry didn’t have a weapon, or they were clueless how to use it. Sooner than expected Rona, Dawn, Vi and Meredith emerged from the trees.

“You’re turn, guys!” Rona called, before settling down with the group of card players.

Merle picked up his stuff and followed Giles. Since a lot of people had been taking the same way, a little footpath had already formed on the ground. They followed the path down a gentle incline to a small stream. The water was clean and, like Meredith had mentioned, ice cold. Giles handed a towel to Merle and the two men started to scrub themselves in silence. Merle occasionally sneaked glances towards Giles, trying to avoid to look like he was checking him out or something. The guy had some interesting scars, but the biggest surprise was the tattoo on his left arm.

“Never would have guessed you got inked”, Merle commented.

The tattoo was rather unusual, some black, vaguely human shaped form with horns. Giles looked at it for a moment.

“A memory from past mistakes, reminding me not to repeat them,” he said rather cryptically.

After they returned to camp, China girl and Willow changed Merle’s bandages again. Chao-Ahn wasn’t too happy when she discovered the cuts on his shoulder.

“You supposed to heal, not get more injuries”, she admonished him. “How’s the pain?”

Merle admitted to taking the Tylenol, but stated he was fine since then.

Again his stump was scrubbed down, but it wasn’t as bad as the last time. They managed to get the remaining dead tissue off. It was bleeding a bit, but according to Chao-Ahn that was a good sign. As Willow rewrapped his stump, he remembered the sleeping bag he got from the store.

“It’s your bed I’ve been sleeping in, right? Got a sleeping bag from the store, so you can move back tonight.”

The redhead frowned. “And where will you be sleeping?”

Merle shrugged. “Outside.”

China Girl protested immediately. “No, you will not. Not until your arm is completely healed. We just got the infection down, so you’re not gonna mess it up again by sleeping on the ground and getting it dirty.”

“She’s right,” Willow added. “I’m totally ok sharing with Dawn, I mean, her elbows are kinnda pointy, but it’s really no biggie.”

Merle yielded, although he wasn’t exactly looking forward to sharing close quarters with a bunch of teenage girls. Some might call him lucky, but he was secretly afraid of another makeover attack. The girls packed away the medical supplies. Merle’s perch on the bus steps had been taken over by Meredith, who was painting her nails. He picked a spot by the trees, leaning back against one and continued his observation. Dawn and Caridad had unloaded the SUV and were now over by one of the vans, surrounded by plastic boxes. They packed away what they’ve brought back from their run, Dawn taking notes on a clipboard to keep track of everything. Andrew had put away his comic book and was starting to prepare dinner with the help of Vi and another girl. They cooked rice and whatever they were brewing up in the other pot, it sure smelled great. Other girls were putting away the dry laundry and took down the ropes. Rona and Xander announced they would be doing a quick sweep and disappeared into the woods. Another noticeable difference to how things had been at the quarry. Back there had been endless discussions about what they should do, with the asshole cop, Shane, prancing around giving orders. It was pretty clear that Buffy was running the show, but here everyone seemed to know what had to be done. For example they seemed to have a fixed schedule for guard duty, instead of remembering randomly that maybe someone should keep an eye out for trouble. Anya had been on top of a van, but Giles traded places with her, apparently so she could join the dinner preparations. The faint sound of engine noises could be heard from the distance. Everybody looked up expectantly and hands inched towards weapons until one of the lookouts announced the return of the CDC team. As soon as they rolled into camp and parked, Faith jumped of the back of Robin’s bike. While Spike, Buffy and Robin looked exhausted, but otherwise seemed to be fine, Faith was covered in blood. Her tank top was soaked, her hair was sticky and smears on her arms and face indicated that she unsuccessfully had tried to wipe it off. She rounded on Robin with a furious expression.

“What the hell? That was a zombie, not a fucking piñata!”

“Hey, what was I supposed to do? Watching, while it took a chunk out of your arm?” Robin countered.

“I’m not some kinnda damsel in distress that needs to be rescued! I had everything under control! I don’t need rescuing!” Faith turned to Buffy. “Did I look like I needed rescuing?”

Buffy held up her hands. “Not getting involved here; I was kinnda busy and didn’t see anything.”

With a huff, Faith stalked off, with Robin starring after her rather confused. Spike patted him on the shoulder.

“Word of advice for the future, mate: Just sit back and enjoy the show; only get involved when they start screaming at you to get off your lazy butt and do something.”

Robin just scowled and headed towards the van he shared with Giles.

“Why don’t they just have sex and get it over with?” Anya muttered none too quietly.

 

Willow had been sitting cross-legged in front of a bucket, furiously scrubbing at the blood stains on Andrew’s shirt, when the team arrived. She immediately dropped it and made a beeline for Buffy, but Dawn beat her to it.

“Buffy, we got a problem!” she called. Once she had reached her sister, she dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “He knows! He’s asking questions and…”

“Who?” Buffy interrupted her frantic whispering. She already had an idea where this was going.

“Merle, of course! We ran into some zombies”, Dawn explained and quickly elaborated, when she saw the concern on Buffy’s face,” but everything is fine; nobody got eaten. During the fight I noticed him getting this jaw-hits-floor expression and then he started asking where we learned to fight.”

“And what did you tell him?”

“Well, I couldn’t just tell him about slayers! He would think I’m crazy! So, I kinnda pulled a Sunnydale and gave him the old “gangs on PCP” story, but I don’t think he bought it,” Dawn answered. “He dropped it, but ever since he’s kinnda …watching, like he’s trying to figure it out.” She glanced towards Merle.

“You know, if you told him the truth, he might have accepted it”, Buffy mused. “If you’re surrounded by zombies on a daily basis, you might start to belief that vampires and demons exist.”

“Whatever, but I’m not going to be the one trying to explain it to him. The big speech is your job; I’m just the kid sister.”

Willow finally had enough.

“Can we please get to the important stuff? How’s the CDC? Is the road clear?” she asked impatiently.

Buffy looked to the ground. She had no idea how to break the news to her friend. Spike saved her.

“The CDC is gone,” he said in a matter- of- fact tone. 

“What do you mean? Is it overrun? Did they evacuate?”

“No, it’s literally gone. The whole building is gone.”

Willow starred at them in shock.

“But how?” she stammered.

Buffy sighed. “We don’t know. Maybe it was an accident or maybe the place had some kind of self-destruct mechanism, but the whole building was blown to pieces. I’m sorry Willow…”

Willow didn’t seem to hear her. She just turned around and walked towards the bus in a daze. Buffy wanted to go after her, but she knew there was no way to console Willow right now. Spike wrapped his arms around her.

“Never thought she would take it this hard; I mean, we all kind of expected it wouldn’t be that easy,” he said.

Buffy turned in his embrace and looked up.

“Spike, have you seen the stuff she’s been reading? Ever since she got the idea, she’s been doing tons of research. Willow thought she had prepared for everything; she had been talking with Andrew how they could start their own research in case the place was deserted. It never occurred to her that not only the scientist could be gone or dead, but that the whole lab could be destroyed beyond saving. She did all this work and planning and dragged us halfway across the country, only to find it’s nothing there.”

“It’s not too bad”, Spike mused. “The original plan might have been a bust, but I still think we’re better off here than we would have been in California.”

“Yeah”, Buffy agreed,” but we still kinnda need a plan b.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have to apologiese for the lack of updates. A few days after I posted the last chapter, my aunt got sick. She was hospitalized and sadly things quickly turned really bad. She passed away after several weeks in ICU. As you can imagine, during that time I had no time to write. Afterwards, I didn't feel like writing, plus there was a whole lot of other stuff I had to deal with, that I had neglected. This chapter had been writen before all of this. I just gave it a quick once-over; I'm not thrilled with it. I know myself, if I started doctoring around, esp. now that I need to reconnect with the story, it would get stuck in the re-write loop for all eternity. So, I'm posting it as it is and hope I'll get back into things again with time. At least, the urge to write is back!

The sun was going down as they gathered for dinner. News of the destruction of the CDC had traveled quickly and the general mood was subdued. People were sitting around in small groups, but it was much more quiet than usual. Willow had retreated to her bed and it had taken some coaxing and prodding to get her out of the bus. Now she was sitting next to Buffy, starring at her plate and pushing her food around. Spike, who had been sitting on Buffy’s other side, occasionally stealing bits of food from her plate, spoke up first.

“One thing is sure; we can’t continue this traveling side-show routine.”

“Yeah, we need to find a permanent place”, Robin agreed.

“I thought it was safer to be on the move?” Dawn asked around a mouth full of chickpea and lentil curry. “Wouldn’t it draw more attention, undead or otherwise, if we stayed in one place?”

She had opted to sit with the “grown-ups” tonight instead of mingling with the other girls, not wanting to miss out on planning. 

“It depends on the place,” Robin explained. “We need something not too obvious, but not too isolated. The house in Fort Worth was pretty good; something similar would be nice.”

“Factories are always a good option,” Spike added. “Living on the road is too dangerous in the long run; too many things that could go wrong. What if the bus breaks down and we can’t repair it ‘cause we can’t find replacement parts? Food might become an issue too. We’ve seen that we are not the only ones scavenging.”

“Maybe a hospital?” Willow hesitantly suggested. “You know; if we could find one with decent lab equipment we might still be able to work out something…”

“Way too dangerous,” Robin said immediately. “People would come looking for medical supplies and since there’s a chance they’re not friendly…we would have to watch our backs all the time.”

“Right,” Spike added. “Plus, there’s a chance most hospitals would be wrecked anyway. I bet a lot of people headed there when this thing started and a lot of the early victims died there. Probably lots of fighting.”

Buffy hated to crush her friend’s hopes, but she could only agree.

“I’m sorry, Wills, but they are right. We need to start thinking long term. Once we’ve established some kind of base camp, we might still find a way to work on a cure, but right now survival comes first.”

“Actually,” Giles spoke up,” we might start looking into growing our own food once we’ve settled down.”

“You mean, like gardening?” Faith sounded positively alarmed at the prospect.

“Uhm, I think Spike gave me an idea,” Anya, who, like Xander, had simply listened to the discussion, suggested. “We should get a phone book or the yellow pages. So when we need something specific, like car parts, we can look up places like repair shops and then use the maps to find them instead of just hoping to come across them by sheer luck.”

“That is…actually a marvelous idea!” Giles stated.

“There’s probably one back at the dinner; I’ll check tomorrow,” Xander said.

Buffy had been watching Merle thoughtfully.

“You know, there’s something else we might do,” she said. “I was talking to Merle this morning.”

Buffy related his story to the group.

“And they just ran off without him?” Dawn was flabbergasted. “That’s …evil.”

“I wouldn’t call it evil, but it’s certainly harsh,” Giles mused. “And you want to find them?”

“Yes. Ok, I know only his side of the story, but they do sound like a bunch of morons. The thing is; Merle’s got a brother and he might still be with that group. He didn’t ask, but if I got separated from Dawn, I would be hell bent on finding her. So, we try to find them and hopefully his brother.”

“And then?” Dawn asked.

Buffy shrugged. “I told him, he’s no prisoner. They can stay or they can go off on their own.”

“But I want to keep Merle!” Dawn crossed her arms with a stubborn look on her face.

“Wow, possessive much?”

“It’s just… I kinda like him; not like I have crush on him or anything, ‘cause he’s old, like Giles old”, Dawn hastily explained, completely ignoring the wounded expression on Giles’ face. “For example, after the fight, he didn’t freak or anything. Sure, he started to ask all these questions, but he didn’t have a problem with girls being kick-ass zombie killers. He was cool with that. Ok I’ve just known him for a day, but I think once we get to know him better, he might fit right in. Actually, he kinda reminds me of Spike, you know, rough exterior, but there’s a big softy hiding inside.”

“Hey, watch it, Missy!” Spike protested. “You’re tarnishing my reputation!”

“Sorry, Spike.” Dawn patted his arm affectionately. “You’re still the Big Bad. See? I’m already trembling in my boots!”

Spike laughed and ruffled her hair.

“So, should I get him?” Dawn asked and got to her feet. Minutes later, she returned with Merle in tow. His expression was guarded.

 

When Dawn asked him to come over, Merle was getting wary. He had no idea why the people in charge wanted to talk to him, but in his book, that usually didn’t end well. However, Buffy seemed to be in a rather cheerful mood as she asked him to sit down.

“I’ve just been telling them what you told me this morning and since the CDC does no longer exist, we’re wondering: Do you think your old group is still camping at the quarry?” she asked.

Now Merle was definitely getting nervous.

“They might. But why? I’m not too keen on a reunion.” 

“I can imagine. But do you think you’re brother might still be with them?”

“You’re looking for Daryl?” Merle was surprised. Sure, he had entertained thoughts of finding Daryl; especially after realizing he wasn’t quiet as helpless as he thought, but never in a million years he would have expected Buffy would offer to help him. “Again; why?”

Buffy shrugged. “He’s your brother. If I would get separated from Dawn…she’s my sister; I’ll do anything for her. Hell, I died for her.”

Merle wasn’t sure if he got that last part right, but he was glad they were on the same page.

Robin went and got the map. Spreading it on the ground, he turned to Merle.

“Do you think you could find the quarry?”

Merle wasn’t sure, since his memory of everything that happened after his escape was rather sketchy, but after a while he found the right location on the map. They would need to backtrack a bit, but it wasn’t really that far away. They decided to head out early next morning and Dawn let out a shrill whistle to get everyone’s attention.

“Heads up, guys. New plan,” she announced. “As you know, the CDC is out of the picture. So, new mission. We’re trying to find the group Merle was with earlier.”

The news was met with surprise, since up to now they had tried to avoid other people.

“Reason is,” Dawn continued,” he’s got a brother, Daryl, and he might still be with them. So, try to get some sleep, because we’re starting out early.”

Merle couldn’t sleep. He just couldn’t stop thinking about the next day. Merle wanted to find Daryl, but at the same time he hoped the quarry camp had moved on, with or without his baby brother, because he just knew a meeting of the groups wouldn’t go without a hitch. There was no way to predict how Shane would react to them showing up; probably pissed off. The guy wasn’t exactly stable sometimes, even Merle had noticed. The group from California was a strange bunch, they … he wasn’t sure how to describe it, but they had an air of confidence around them, something that the Atlanta survivors hadn’t. Buffy meeting Shane …that was an accident waiting to happen. Merle turned on his back. He wondered how Daryl was doing. Maybe he took off on his own. Had they told him what happened or did they make up some bullshit story that the walkers got him? Did Officer Friendly and his merry band of misfits even return? He had kinda stolen their ride, so maybe they got killed? Well, if that was the case…, sorry, but not sorry. He scratched his head. There was another thing; if they really managed to find Daryl, what then? He was pretty sure his brother wouldn’t be too keen on joining up with Buffy’s crew. Daryl would balk at the very idea. His little brother wasn’t exactly comfortable around the fairer sex. Hell, without Merle chatting up the broads, Darylina would never get laid. Merle turned towards the entrance. There was already a faint light outside. It would be dawn soon and he hadn’t really slept at all. He closed his eyes. Maybe he could persuade Daryl to join this group, but if not, the choice was easy. Family comes first. Still, Merle hoped they would stay. There were still a lot of unanswered questions about these people. He had backed off for now, but he was determined to get his answers. He opened his eyes again when he heard someone stumbling up the steps. It took a moment to recognize the person. It was Willow. He couldn’t remember her leaving during the night; had she been outside the whole time? The girl kicked off her boots and fumbled towards the bed in the semi-darkness, using his bed as leverage to climb up to the top bunk.

“Wills? Where the hell have you been?” Dawn asked in a sleepy voice.

Red mumbled something about doing a double shift. She seemed to be out as soon as she hit the mattress. Dawn must have fallen asleep again, because there was no further talking. Merle sighed. Since he couldn’t sleep anyway, he could as well get up. Maybe someone had already made coffee; he could use it.

 

It turned out that Andrew had already made coffee. Soon people emerged from their various sleeping places and joined them. Breakfast was a less opulent affair this morning, with Dawn simply putting out a large box labeled “snacks”. It was filled with granola bars, chocolate bars, packs of cookies and other junk food. Merle picked a pack of oreo cookies; using his teeth to open it, while Dawn, after some consideration decided on a bag of chili chips, extra hot. With everyone still half asleep, breakfast was quickly over and they packed up camp. He noticed people giving Willow concerned looks. The redhead was practically sleepwalking and could hardly keep her eyes open. When they were ready to hit the road, Merle was in for another surprise. The black guy, Robin, traded off his motorcycle to Giles and took one of the vans instead. First the tattoo and now a motorcycle; Merle would defiantly keep an eye on the Brit. He was told he would ride with Robin today, so he could give directions. Merle wasn’t sure he liked that. They headed out at the front of the convoy, stopping briefly at the diner, where Xander picked up a phone book, of all things. To avoid getting stuck in a traffic jam, they once again decided to stay off the highway and took the smaller roads on the outskirts of the Atlanta metro area. Things went smoothly until they reached the general area of the quarry. While the quarry was on their map, all the hiking paths and dirt roads surrounding it weren’t. A frustrating search began. Every time they came across a dirt road Robin would turn to Merle and ask if that could be the one. Merle wasn’t sure. Somehow they all looked the same. The frustration was getting to him and Robin’s seemingly never-ending patience only made it worse. It was embarrassing. He had been telling Buffy about his tracking skills and now he couldn’t find the way. Merle gritted his teeth and tried to reign in his temper. Spike and Giles investigated some of the roads Merle thought might be a possibility, but they all turned out to be the wrong ones. By late afternoon, Spike slowed down next to their van.

“This isn’t going anywhere. Better we stop somewhere and regroup.”

Robin nodded. “Right; we’re burning daylight.”

Spike related the message along the convoy and when they came upon a parking area, they stopped. It turned out they were in luck. There were a couple of picnic tables at the edge of the tree line and a large sign, captioned “Visitor Information”, next to them. The sign provided a detailed map of the area and they finally managed to locate the road they had been looking for. It wasn’t too far off, just a bit along the road.

“There’s a chance we’re not going to be welcomed with open arms, so it might be safer to send a small team ahead,” Robin pointed out.

Buffy agreed and it was decided that she and Merle, along with Rona, Caridad and a girl named Shannon should go ahead to make first contact. Remembering the survivors at the quarry had guns, she also added Spike to the team. The rest of the group would stay back at the parking area. After maybe a half hour walk they found the dirt road leading up to the quarry. They had encountered a few walkers, luckily mostly small groups of maybe three or four. Once again Merle found his companions puzzling, Spike, for example. With the exception of Merle himself, he was the only male in their group, yet the guy didn’t lift a finger to deal with the walkers, leaving them entirely to the girls. Strangely, it seemed like he was invisible to the walkers. There was one occasion when a teenager with ripped jeans, one arm only attached by a thread, almost touched him in passing, but didn’t react. Instead, the walker headed straight for Shannon, who put it down by throwing her knife, hitting it straight in the eye. And then there was, of course, the general attitude. Just like on the supply run, nobody appeared to be scared or even nervous. When a walker showed up, they dispatched it with an air of what almost seemed to be annoyance, like they were swatting mosquitoes. 

 

A red car, which Spike identified as a Dodge Challenger, marked the end of the dirt road. Buffy approached it cautiously. The hood was up and it looked like it had been stripped. A note was stuck under the windshield wiper. She removed and unfolded it.

“Morgan, couldn’t reach you on the radio. We got ambushed; heading for the CDC. Rick” she read aloud.

“Damn”, Merle cursed and kicked the car in frustration.

Buffy lowered the note. “It’s possible we passed them without noticing. Question is: Did they reach the CDC and, if they did, was it before or after it was destroyed? Did they destroy it?”

Merle shrugged. “No idea.”

“Let’s have a look around before we leave,” Spike suggested.

They entered the open terrain. A few abandoned cars and collapsed tents littered the former camp site. They found evidence of a large fire. Buffy used the scythe to briefly sift through the ashes and found blackened bones.

“They must have lost a lot of people in that ambush,” she speculated.

“But they didn’t burn them”, Spike said, pointing to a spot in the distance.

Buffy approached the makeshift gravesite wearily. There weren’t any markers, but it was obvious that quite a few people had been buried here. She turned to Merle.

“I’m sorry, but there’s really no way to find out if…”

“You think Daryl might be buried here?” he interrupted her. “No way; my baby brother aint’ that easy to kill. Daryl is one though little fucker.”

Buffy found it difficult to tear her eyes from the graveyard. Shaking off the uneasy feeling, she decided it was time for them to head back.

 

Since it was getting late, they stayed at the parking area for the night. Dinner was once again instant ramen, but nobody complaint. Buffy and the scout team reported what they had found at the quarry. Giles asked if she had brought the note and Buffy handed it to him. He looked it over thoughtfully.

“This must have been exposed to the elements for a while. See? The letters are slightly blurred, like it had gotten wet at some point.”

“Great, so they could have left ages ago,” Buffy said frustrated.

“Buffy, I realize things haven’t turned out quite the way we hoped recently, “Giles pointed out,” but we shouldn’t give up yet.”

“It’s just…Giles you haven’t been there; those graves…people are dying and we don’t do anything about it! Isn’t it supposed to be our job to save them?”

The feeling of guilt hit her full force. Sure, on some level she had always known that most of the zombies they’ve seen hadn’t died of the virus per se. That they most likely had survived the initial outbreak, but then had been killed by zombies. But the sight of that gravesite had been an uncomfortable reminder.

“Trust me, I understand how you’re feeling,” Giles said gently,” but right now, we are in no real position to do anything. It’s the same with Willow’s research; as long as we haven’t established some kind of secure base of operations, there isn’t much we could do. Sure, if we find someone, like Merle, we can help, if we met another group we might offer assistance, but we can’t just run around blindly looking for people.”

“So we just keep on ignoring it?” Buffy spat.

“No, we go back the way we came, heading back towards the CDC and go from there. We start looking for a place to stay and maybe we’ll come across Merle’s old group while doing so,” Giles said.

“You do realize that would be like finding a needle in a haystack?”

“Not necessarily. Obviously Rick is leaving notes for someone to find him; he might continue to do so.”

 

After dinner Buffy had moved away from the group, sitting down cross-legged on one of the picnic tables. She wanted to have some time alone, to think things over. She also hoped that Spike would get the message and come over, but it was Faith who sat down next to her.

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to start brooding too?” she asked, exhaling a cloud of smoke. “I mean, Willow’s already giving Angel a run for his money…”

Buffy smiled weakly.

“I’m not; I just had to get away from it all for a little while; think about things.”

“Like I said; you’re brooding,” Faith stated.

“Am not!”

“Hey, don’t rip my head off! I just came over to tell you that you’ve got the van all to yourself tonight, so, maybe you could ask Spike if he wanted to stay over…, I mean so you two don’t end having sex in the woods and scare the kiddies…”

“What!?!” Buffy screeched. Quickly, she lowered her voice. “We did so not have sex!”

“Well, maybe not yet, but according to Dawn you were getting all touchy-feely…”

“I’m so going to kill her! Does the whole camp know?” Buffy fumed.

Faith pretended to consider the question. “Uhm, pretty much. Although I would refrain from any hand-holding in front of Giles; he’s still in denial.”

Buffy hung her head in embarrassment.

“Look Buffy, they’re teenagers. They like to gossip.” Faith ground out her cigarette. “Plus, most of them thought you and Spike were an item even back in Sunnydale. You’re like this real life soap opera to them and now they’ve got their happy ending.”

“Wait, were will you sleep?” Buffy asked.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got first watch and I asked Caridad if I could crash in her bed; she’s got second,” Faith explained.

“Faith?”

“Uhm?”

“You might want to talk to Robin…”

“Why? Ok, maybe I shouldn’t have gone off like that after we came back from the CDC, but I like to point out, I was covered in zombie guts back then…”

Buffy sighed. “Faith, he likes you; he was just trying to help you. You know, doing the gentleman thing, like guys do when they try to let a girl know they like her. Stuff like holding the door, gutting zombies…”

“Ok, I get the point. But I can’t just talk to him; I’m not good at this kind of stuff, I told you”, Faith insisted stubbornly.

“But you do realize, that now the Spike and Buffy show got it’s happily ever after, the girls will focus their attention on the new daytime drama, Faith and Robin?”

Faith groaned. “Ok, ok, I’ll do it. But not right away. There’s no way I’m having my first ever grown-up “We need to talk” moment in front of an audience!”

 

Willow sat up straight and forced her eyes to stay open. She couldn’t sleep anyway, so she had once again volunteered for guard duty. Robin had tried to refuse, pointing out that she was too tiered, but after Buffy and Giles had a few words with him, he gave in. It wasn’t like she was posing a major security risk anyway. Everyone else on duty was a slayer and they would notice a threat long before her. She could as well admit it: she was being avoid-y again. Willow thought back to her time with the coven in England. Helen, the motherly witch who had been appointed as her counselor/therapist, had brought it up over and over again; how Willow had the tendency to avoid confronting her feelings. She had done it back when her parents called to let her know they wouldn’t be there on her birthday (“Sorry Willow, but it’s a great honor to speak at this conference, we can’t pass up on that opportunity!”). She used to burry herself in schoolwork and later, after meeting Buffy, in Scooby research, so she wouldn’t have to deal with it. Later, after Oz left, she had done it again. Sure, she had grieved and been heartbroken, but she had quickly turned her attention to magic, once again using research and studying as a means to escape. Then Buffy died and Willow was beginning to realize that her downward spiral had started then, because from that point on, she not only avoided to really deal with Buffy’s death, but she also started to look at magic as a way to fix things. She and Helen had talked about that at length, or better Helen kept prodding. In hindsight, Willow could only shake her head at her own stupidity and, yes, egoism. How she had simply assumed Buffy needed to be saved from some kind of hell, never even bothering to consider anything else. How she had jumped on the “bring Buffy back” project, so she didn’t have to deal with her loss and grieve. Soon afterwards her life had started falling apart. Did that make her stop and pause for just one little moment? No, because, hey, now she had all this magic power to fix things. Then there was Tara. The one person who had managed to get through to her, to confront her and make her see things. And then she had been taken away from her, killed, just when she had started to get herself out of this whole mess.

The arrival of the second shift brought Willow back to the present. Fiona climbed up on the van.

“Hey, Willow; time for you to hit the mattress,” she greeted and let her gaze sweep across the tree line. “Quiet night, I guess.”

“Completely dead, not a single zombie in sight, so I thought I could just stay on…”

“Willow, you can’t keep going like this, you’re wearing yourself out,” Fiona tried to argue.

Willow could sense the girl’s nervousness. Like she hadn’t noticed the younger slayers looking at her, like she was some time bomb waiting to go off.

“Don’t worry, Fiona, I’m fine,” Willow said.

Fiona lingered for a few moments, like she wasn’t sure how to handle the situation, but then left. Obviously she had come to the conclusion that Willow was anything but fine, because now she was having a whispered conversation with Faith. Sure enough, Faith came up next.

“Willow, you’re off. Get some sleep,” Faith told her. “You can’t go on like this.”

“I know everyone is concerned I might lose it and go on some magic rampage again, but I assure you that’s not the case. There’s just some stuff I have to deal with…”

“Like what?” Faith shot back.

Willow hesitated. It wasn’t like she and Faith were close, but maybe, Faith might understand her in a way very few of the other people in their group could.

“Back in England I had kind of a witchy rehab counselor and she kept telling me I had avoidance issues,” Willow started.

Faith made a face. “Sounds an awful lot like that prison shrink I had to see. Always telling me that I needed to build up self esteem and how I needed to work on my trust issues. The guy was driving me nuts!”

“I can imagine…but you have to admit, he was right.”

“I guess so; sometimes,” Faith admitted.

“Same here,” Willow said. “And right now I can almost see Helen, scolding me for falling into my old pattern of denial and avoidance. So guess I have to get back to what she was trying to teach me: acknowledge it, confront it and then let it go.”

Faith sighed. “Ok, I get it, but you’re still officially off duty. Feel free to stay and continue your one-woman therapy session as long as you like, but Fiona is taking over watch.”

 

As Fiona settled down next to her, Willow tried to remember the meditation technique Helen had thought her. She hadn’t been the best student, wondering forever how the other women in the coven managed. Like Tara, they all had an air of calm serenity around them. While Willow had soon learned to center herself in preparation for spell work, she had never quite mastered to just focus on her mind and close down all those nervous thoughts running around in her head. She took a deep breath. No more over-analyzing, no more what-if’s. She could do this. She started to close down all those things her mind had come up with to keep her from dealing with the real issue, the one she had been avoiding. Kennedy.

Willow had no idea how much time had passed when she returned to reality. Someone had his hand on her shoulder and was shaking her none too gently. She also became aware of the fact that she was soaking wet.

“Thank god, I was getting worried,” Fiona said relieved. “You were completely zoned out and when it started raining and you just kept starring off into space…”

Willow blinked.

“It’s alright. I think I’m going to bed now.”

Leaving behind a perplexed junior slayer, she slid down from the top off the van, landing in the middle of a large puddle. The downpour must have been short, because the night sky was cloudless again and the full moon provided enough light to see without using a flash light. It wasn’t really cold, but the combination of wet clothes and exhaustion made Willow shiver as she headed for the bus. She had no doubt she would be able to finally sleep, not toss around until she more or less passed out. Acknowledge, confront and let go. She had done it.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, slowly getting back into the swing of things. Thank you for your patientce and thanks to yellowb and Nightscream for their kind words. Tomorrow, I'm off to vacation. Never been to Italy before, I'm excited!

It wasn’t really pain, it was just …itching and it was fucking annoying. Merle had woken up trying to scratch the hand that wasn’t there. He had read about phantom pain once and was wondering if that was how it started. He hoped not. Ignoring the nerve endings pretending that he still had a hand, he turned on his other side, looking out on the parking area. A figure headed unsteadily in the direction of the school bus and he tensed up, fearing it might be a walker who had slipped into camp despite the guards. When he saw a flash of red hair in the bright moonlight he relaxed. Willow. Again. If it was up to him, he would have knocked some sense into the redhead by now. Even during their first meeting she had seemed nervous, but now she appeared to be close to losing it completely and allowing her on watch was a risk to everyone’s safety. Once inside, Willow nearly lost her balance as she removed her boots and socks. Merle expected her to climb up to the top bunk, but instead, she wriggled out of her jeans. Next went the over-sized sweater, leaving her in panties and a tank top. What the hell was she thinking? Putting on a show like this right in front of his nose… but damn, look at those legs! Why didn’t he notice them before? She had her back to him and his thoughts came to a screeching halt when she started pulling up her top. Merle held his breath. She wouldn’t? With a mixture of relief and disappointment he watched her unhook her bra and maneuvering it out from underneath the top. It joined the pile of clothes on the floor. Willow turned around and clumsily climbed up to the top bunk, providing him with a close-up of those killer legs. His hand was forgotten and the thought of staying outside in a sleeping bag suddenly lost its appeal.

 

Buffy thought her head was going to explode. She should have hitched a ride with Anya, even if that would have meant hearing everything about all the different ways to have sex in the back of a van. Everything would be better than this. But no, she was stuck on the bus while the majority of the junior slayers, including Dawn and Andrew, were in the middle of a lengthy discussion about the movie they would be watching tonight. Robin was in the driver’s seat and Buffy could see him almost grind his teeth. They were inching along a road littered with abandoned cars, finally moving away from the city. The group had spent almost a week roaming suburban Atlanta, hoping to find traces of the quarry group. Nothing, except zombies. The constant threat had everyone on edge, but Dawn had insisted on staying a bit longer. She, Andrew and Anya wanted to pick up as many supplies as possible. They argued that, once they moved to the countryside, scavenging opportunities would be scarcer. Now every bit of available room was filled with stuff. For the first time in her life, Buffy was glad she wasn’t tall, because she was currently sharing her bed with a carton of ketchup and mayo packages Andrew had found at McDonald’s. Behind her back the argument went on, but at least they had narrowed down the choices to “The Empire strikes back” versus “Bring it on”. Thank God Merle wasn’t there, because he wouldn’t hesitate to add fuel to the fire. During the past days, Buffy had been more than once ready to strangle the guy. Since the supply run and with his wound pretty much healed, Merle was under the impression that he was fit enough to go on runs. That run had been meant as a test and Buffy had no intention to risk his life on a regular basis. Every morning, when they handed out assignments for the day, Merle would volunteer to join a scavenging team and when Buffy told him to stay put, he would throw a hissy fit. Rona, who was supposed to keep him safe, had it in her head that they made a great team. She and Dawn had formed some kind of “Merle fan club” and both girls usually tried to convince Buffy to let Merle tag along. Buffy was sick of having to go through the same argument every single morning. Faith, who had gone ahead of the convoy on one the motorcycles, appeared next to the window.

“We gotta turn back, it gets worse further ahead. The road is completely jammed.”

Robin cursed and stopped, not bothering with signaling the rest of the convoy, since they were moving at a snail’s pace anyway.

“Any chance for clearing the way?” he asked.

Faith shook her head. “It would take ages. They are lined up bumper to bumper for god knows how far. But maybe I’ve found another message. There was food and water left on a car and a message written on the dusty windshield. It’s mostly gone by now, but it was for someone named Sophia. I’ll check with Merle:”

She moved along the row of cars, stopping at each vehicle to tell the occupants that they would have to turn around. Halfway she was met by Spike, who had brought up the rear on the other bike, asking why they had stopped. Faith briefly explained.

“Oh shit. I’ll go back and check exits. Got the map?” he asked. Faith handed it over. Spike turned around and sped off while Faith pulled up next to the van with Merle and Giles. She explained about the blocked road and then turned to Merle.

“I found a message on one of the cars. Was there someone named Sophia in your group?”

Merle frowned. “Not sure; I never really bothered to learn the fucking names of all of them…Sophia…no, doesn’t ring any bell.”

“Great,” Faith huffed,” so we just sit on our asses and wait for Spike to come back.”

She fished a packet of cigarettes from her jacket and lit up.

“Hey, sugar tits, got one for me?” Merle asked.

Faith’s eyes narrowed.

“You talking to me?”

“Faith, can I have a cigarette, please?” Merle asked with saccharine politeness.

Faith gave him one and handed her lighter through the rolled down window. Merle tossed it back after lighting up and leaned his head back, exhaling a cloud of smoke.

“Mind if I stretch my legs a bit?” he asked.

Faith shrugged. “Go ahead, but don’t wander off too far. Got your knife?”

Merle rolled his eyes. “Yes, mom.”

He got out of the van and started walking along the line of cars. He spotted Willow behind the wheel of the van right ahead and contemplated joining her, but before he got a chance, Anya came up from further ahead and got in the passenger seat. Merle walked past them. Caridad and China girl were in the next van. When he heard Spike return, he looked back. After a brief conversation, Giles started to turn the car. Since Anya was now riding with Willow, Xander was alone in his van and Merle opened the passenger door. Maybe he could get some information out of the guy.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Go ahead,” Xander answered, putting the van in reverse. One by one the vehicles turned around, the bus needing a bit more maneuvering. Merle got comfortable, while the convoy left the highway and followed Spike’s lead.

“Is it difficult to drive with one eye?” Merle asked curiously.

“Not really,” Xander answered. “My depth perception is kinda messed up, but it’s not like there’s a lot of traffic anymore anyway.”

“You know, they could at least let me drive,” Merle said. “I’m getting sick of being treated like a fucking cripple.”

Xander choose not to point out that, technically, a missing hand fit the qualification. He nodded towards the bandage.

“Don’t worry. I bet this comes off soon and Willow and Chao-Ahn will declare you fit for duty. Be patient and don’t argue, especially not if Willow got her resolve face.”

“You’ve known her for long?”

“Willow and I go way back, till kinder garden. We later met Buffy in high school. After graduation they went off to college and I did all kinds of jobs until I ended up doing construction work. Buffy studied Psychology and Willow…god knows how many classes Willow took.”

Merle raised his eyebrows. “So, she’s one of them brainy nerds?”

Xander laughed. “A bit, at least during high school. She’s super smart and has mad computer skills; even took over teaching computer science in high school. Without Willow, I would have never made it through school. MIT and Harvard were practically begging on her doorstep, but she wanted to stay in Sunnydale.”

“Why did she have to take over a class? What happened to the teacher?”

“She got murdered.”

“So all this talk about finding a cure, you really think Red could do it?” Merle asked.

“Yeah, that was the plan. With the right equipment, I think Willow could do it. We just didn’t expect someone to blow up the lab. That hit her pretty hard. First we lost Kennedy, which probably brought back bad memories about Tara…”

“Who’s Tara?”

“Tara was Willow’s girlfriend. They met in college. Last year some psycho shot her right in front of Willow.”

“Ouch. Dawn mentioned that your hometown wasn’t all sunshine and daisies, but I thought she was exaggerating…”

Xander snorted. “Nope, she probably wasn’t. And the worst part; Tara wasn’t even the target. The guy was trying to kill Buffy, but a stray bullet got Tara instead. Willow…after Tara’s death she wasn’t …herself anymore for a while, but she got better and met Kennedy and now Kennedy is dead too. Fucking Zombies…”

Merle finally caught on. “Wait, Willow’s a carpet muncher?”

Xander turned so fast, the van veered dangerously. The look in his eye was pure murder.

“I’m going to say this only once: never talk about Willow or Tara like that. You wouldn’t like the consequences…”

Merle hurriedly backed off. “Hey, sorry, no offence. You liked Tara?”

Xander smiled sadly. “She was special, one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”

“And this Kennedy chick?”

“She made Willow happy”, Xander answered evasively.

They lapsed into silence, as Merle contemplated what he had learned. He still had no idea what was going on with these people, but he felt like he had another little piece of the puzzle. And the redhead with the killer legs was into girls.

 

By early afternoon everyone’s sense of direction was getting fuzzy. According to the map the road was supposed to be parallel to the highway, giving them a chance to circumvent the roadblock. But one collapsed bridge, which forced them to change direction and several confusing road signs later, they weren’t even sure they were still heading in the right direction. When they reached a small town, they decided to call it a day. It wasn’t even a real town, just a few houses and a car repair shop clustered along the road. The place didn’t even have a name. They parked in the dusty area in front of the repair shop and several sweep teams spread out to make sure the place was safe to stay for the night. One by one, the teams returned. They had found all the houses empty, cars gone and signs that people packed up whatever they could carry before they left. The owner of the car repair shop was the only one left behind. The man had blown his head off with a shotgun in his living room and the stench of the rooting corpse had been so bad, nobody stayed longer than absolutely necessary inside the house. Fiona and Shannon had returned with a bucket full of tomatoes they had picked in one of the gardens. Once the area was deemed safe, they set up camp. Dawn, Anya and several of the girls started to prepare dinner, while Buffy, Robin, Faith and Giles huddled over the map, trying to figure out their position. Someone had mentioned that the water inside the house was still working, so a few brave souls ventured inside, despite the horrible smell, to fill up the canisters. Spike, Xander, Andrew and Merle took a look around the workshop and picked through the piles of junk scattered around the house, but the only useful thing they found was a large cardboard box filled with batteries. A few girls gathered around it with the group’s flashlights to test if the batteries still worked. After dinner Andrew announced they would be watching “The Empire strikes back” tonight. Some people groaned and volunteered for guard duty, while everyone else squeezed inside the school bus, Merle among them. As Andrew was setting up the laptop, he was once again struck by the contrast between the groups. At the quarry camp, people had been sitting around the camp fire in a frightened huddle most of the time. Here they were watching movies; hell, they even passed bowls of popcorn, courtesy of Anya, around. It had been ages since he watched a Star Wars movie and he found it wasn’t too bad.

“You know, with the right tools, I could totally build a hand like that!” Andrew declared, as Luke Skywalker looked at his new hand for the first time during the final scenes.

“Yeah right, constructing a mechanical hand like that from scratch, sure”, Dawn muttered.

“Hey, do you think Warren created those bots alone? The programming was his, but I came up with a lot of the mechanics…”

Dawn threw a hand full of popcorn at him to shut him up and quickly looked at Merle. To her relief he didn’t seem to have heard the comment. Xander however heard it and sat up straighter. An idea began to form in his mind and he starred at the screen as the credits rolled by. Suddenly he jumped up, startling everyone.

“Someone got some paper and a pen?” he asked.

“Yeah, I think so”, Meredith answered and pulled out her box from underneath her bunk. Rummaging around a bit, she found a spiral notebook and a pen and handed it to Xander. Without an explanation, Xander left the bus, only pausing to grab a protesting Andrew by the arm, to head for the garage. As everyone else headed off to bed, the two of them could be seen at the work bench, inspecting and tossing away stuff, while scribbling in the notebook by the light of several flashlights.

 

By early morning light, Xander was back on the school bus, searching the contents of the weapons box. Soon he found what he was looking for, slamming the lid shut. Ignoring the sleepy protest, he left again. During breakfast Andrew showed up with a tape measure and the notebook. While he took measurements of Merle’s right arm, Buffy joined Xander inside the garage. She handed him a cup of coffee and, after a brief conversation, announced they would be staying another day, without giving an explanation. Merle tried to ask Andrew what this was all about, but he didn’t get an answer. Andrew just wrote down several numbers and then intercepted Willow and Chao-Ahn, who came over to check on Merle’s wound. Chao-Ahn followed Andrew to the garage, leaving Willow to look after Merle. By now, the girls around camp were watching with great interest, trying to figure out what was going on. Someone asked Anya. She just shrugged.

“No idea. Xander has been up all night; for all I know they are trying to build one of these laser sword thingies.”

Meanwhile, Willow unwrapped Merle’s stump. She seemed to be less jumpy and looked well rested.

“There’s still some scabbing, but everything has healed up pretty well”, Willow told him after inspecting the wound.

“Great.”

“Do you feel any pain?”

“No.”

“Anything else, anything unusual?”

“Bit of an itch and it sometimes feels like I still got my hand.”

Willow looked thoughtful.

“The itch is probably the healing process. The paresthesia might be permanent.”

“The what?”

“The feeling that the hand is still there; it often happens after amputation. There are several theories; one of them is that the severed nerve endings are sending messed up signals to the brain. In some cases this can end up in severe pain, so if it gets worse, please tell me or Chao-Ahn”, Willow explained.

“Right.”

What was wrong with him? He wasn’t usually this tongue-tied. Hell, he was starting to act like Daryl. Merle watched as Willow bandaged his stump. She got this cute wrinkle over her nose when she concentrated on something. Wait, cute? Merle Dixon didn’t go for cute. It was hot or not.

“We still need to bandage it, so the stump keeps its shape.”

“Right.”

Ok, she wasn’t exactly his definition of hot, but she was pretty, with her long red hair and those little freckles. Wondering if she had those all over, Merle completely missed that Willow had finished bandaging him up and was packing up her stuff again.

“So, all done and remember, if it starts to hurt or if there’s anything strange, don’t hesitate to tell.”

“Yeah, right. Thank you.”

“No biggie”, Willow answered with a smile. It lit up her whole face.

Merle watched her return the first aid supplies to the van. Yep, pretty. Not hot, like Faith or Buffy. Faith was practically oozing sex and Buffy was defiantly a looker, but there was something about those two that told him to tread carefully. Like one wrong move or word and his balls would be history. That Anya chick wasn’t too bad either, but while he found her bluntness amusing, she was also way beyond weird. Not to mention that she and one-eye were very much an item. But Willow…too bad she was batting for the other team.

After breakfast Merle, Shannon and Fiona were asked to collect more firewood. Since they had plenty of water on hand, it was time for laundry again and some of the girls wanted to wash their hair. With nothing else to do afterwards, Merle settled down to read a Stephen King novel he had borrowed from Rona, occasionally glancing over towards Xander and Andrew. It was clear that they were trying to build some kind of prosthesis for him and he was wondering what they would come up with. Giles and Robin were bending over the map, still trying to figure out their location. They had managed to identify the collapsed bridge and soon decided to head out, looking for road signs.

Buffy, who had been on kitchen duty today, was setting out plates and mugs on their folding table, when Andrew and Xander emerged from the garage. They were heading over to Merle, both grinning proudly. Merle eyed them wearily. Andrew was carrying a monstrous contraption, while Xander kept one hand behind his back.

“It’s not the Luke Skywalker model, but we think it might work”, Andrew explained.

Merle wasn’t sure he would agree, as Andrew started to put the thing on his right arm. It had a metal cap that went over the stump. Two stripes of metal were welded to it and went up to his upper arm, where the whole thing was held in place by two leather straps.

“And, how does it fit?” Andrew asked eagerly.

Merle gingerly moved his arm. It wasn’t too heavy and they had put some kind of foam padding inside the metal cap. He could even bend his elbow, despite the metal stripes, but he didn’t see how this was supposed to help him. Xander’s grin widened, as he brought out the bayonet Meredith had found from behind his back. He inserted the blade into a little opening on the metal cap, where it locked into place with a faint click. Xander turned Merle’s arm slightly.

“It’s detachable. See that little button? You got to move it to the left and then press down to remove the blade. We wanted to make sure it can’t get loose accidentally. And if you ever lose the bayonet; a large kitchen knife would also work if you removed the handle. We tested it.”

Merle was at loss for words.

“That’s an amazing piece of work. Thank you guys.”

Rona, who had joined the crowd gathered around the trio, beamed.

“Come on Merle! Let’s go and find some zombies to put this baby to the test!”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My muse was in a really good mood last night and I didn't want to stop writing. I just had to finish this chapter before going. So, enjoy. I'm off and have to finish packing. How the hell I'm going to get this huge pile off stuff into the little suitcase?!?

A day later they reached the highway again. It was now almost empty and they rarely saw abandoned cars. They also hadn’t encountered any zombies. During a break, Buffy decided to walk down the road for a bit to see what was ahead. She was joined by Dawn, Rona and Merle. As they strolled along the highway, Rona vented her frustration.

“Come on! We’ve been up to our necks in zombies for days and now that Merle wants to try out his new toy we have to look for them? Seriously?” She kicked a stone across the road.

“Maybe they all retired and moved to Florida?” Dawn suggested.

“Na, they realized the bikini season has started and went on a diet”, Rona shot back.

“Great, now it’s going to be only a matter of seconds for a herd to show up”, Buffy muttered, re-adjusting the scythe on her back.

“Hey, I didn’t use the w-word!” her sister protested.

“Anyway, you jinxed it. If we get eaten it’s all your fault…Oh, great, not again!” Buffy groaned at the sight ahead.

Several cars, pick-up trucks, and an overturned RV were blocking the road.

Rona shrugged.

“No biggie; we can move those.”

“Uhm, guys? I think there are bodies …” Dawn pointed out.

Weapons ready, they cautiously moved closer. One of the pick-up trucks had a confederate flag painted on the hood and Dawn wrinkled her nose in disgust as she spotted the “White Power” sticker on the bumper of another one. All of the trucks were equipped with gun racks, but those were empty. Merle kept his eyes on the trees lining the road. He was getting a bad feeling about this. Buffy kneeled down next to the body of a man. He was quiet large, dressed in black clothes, with a beer belly sticking out from underneath his sleeveless shirt. A large swastika tattoo covered his left upper arm. He was dead, probably for some time, with a bullet hole smack in the middle of his forehead.

“Shit, we’ve got company!” Merle called out. Zombies emerged from the trees, like they had been waiting for them, and ambled towards the group.

“See”, Buffy accused as she raised the scythe, “you jinxed it!”

Inwardly she cursed that they didn’t have a crossbow. They would have to take them on from close up. She quickly glanced back and was satisfied to see that Rona and Dawn were flanking Merle, sword and katana ready. As she sliced one approaching zombie from head to toe, she heard a noise from behind and quickly looked over her shoulder. Great. More zombies were coming from the woods on the other side of the highway. When the zombies started to close in from all sides, Rona, Dawn and Merle went from side-by-side to back-to-back. Merle tried to aim for the eyes at first, but soon found out the bayonet was sturdy enough to pierce a walker’s skull like butter. He had to kick them away sometimes, when they got stuck on the blade. At first he felt clumsy, but soon got used to his new fighting technique. Next to him, Rona and Dawn were cutting down zombies easily and from the corner of his eye he could see Buffy. She was moving so fast, all he could see was a blurry shape and the glint of the scythe as she left a path of destruction in her wake. 

“Everyone ok?” Buffy asked when the last zombie was down.

“Yeah, no problem”, Dawn answered. “And I’d like to point out that Merle’s new weapon is all kinds of awesome.”

“Yeah, I think he sufficiently proved himself to be a big boy now, so please drop the mother hen routine!” Rona added.

“Alright”, Buffy relented.

She turned to Merle, who was cleaning off his blade on the shirt of walker.

“From now on you’re officially without a babysitter. If you go and get yourself killed it’s entirely your own fault.”

Merle smirked. “Thanks, I guess.”

Dawn had returned to examining the cars.

“Hey, there’s another dead guy behind the wheel in the camper. Got shot in the head too.”

Rona nudged one of the zombies with her foot.

“This one looks like he belonged to them too”, she said, pointing out the SS runes tattooed on his hand.

Buffy frowned. “Ok, something doesn’t add up here. We have five cars and three dead guys. At least one of them has no injuries, aside from the headshot that killed him. One was shot in the car and one turned. What happened here?”

Merle, who had examined the busted front tire on the RV, straightened up again.

“Easy. They got ambushed. Someone set a trap, probably hiding among the trees. When these fuckers drove by, they fired on the RV, busting the tire and then took out the rest”, he explained.

“Still, three dead guys, five cars,” Dawn pointed out. “There should be two more at least.”

Merle shrugged.

“Maybe they decided to join the winning team. Or they’ve turned and are somewhere in the woods.”

“But why?” Dawn wondered.

“Sunshine, you’ve seen any weapons here?” Merle snorted, gesturing towards the gun racks. “From the looks of it, those guys probably carried a small arsenal. Someone wanted it and didn’t bother to ask nicely.”

Buffy crossed her arms.

“I’m not liking this one bit. We have to get off the highway.”

Dawn and Rona groaned.

“These guys look still pretty fresh, so whoever did this might still be in the neighborhood”, Buffy continued. “We’ve seen dirt roads next to the highway, maybe we could take those. We’d be much less exposed in the woods.”

“But what if the bus gets stuck?” Rona pointed out.

“We just have to be careful. I don’t want us to be used for target practice.”

Merle had gone off and was looking around the pick-up trucks. They all had the keys in the ignition. Dawn noticed.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Getting myself a new ride”, he answered, starting one of them. Satisfied, he saw that the tank was full. “Time for me to move out of the dorm. Couldn’t sleep anyway, always had the feeling you girls might gang up on me and start painting my nails or some shit”, he smirked.

Dawn grinned back.

“Now that you mention it, I’ve got the perfect pink…”

Merle turned the car around and stopped next to them.

“Ladies, can I offer you a lift?”

Giggling, they climbed into the bed of the pick-up.

 

The rest of the group had kept themselves busy by siphoning gas from abandoned cars. There were a few still in walking distance and they managed to fill several canisters. Spike had gone off on his bike to a bus they had passed earlier to get gas for the school bus. Buffy’s plan wasn’t exactly embraced, even after she told them what they had found.

“We just get lost again. We’ll accomplish nothing by running around in circles in the woods,” Robin protested.

“Yeah, and driving this baby on dirt roads is a real pain in the ass,” Faith added, patting the school bus affectionately.

“You really want to go on? With a bunch of heavily armed people probably already waiting for us?” Rona asked with raised eyebrows. “’Cause Merle thinks this wasn’t the first time; those guys looked to have loads of practice.”

Buffy sighed. “Honestly, you guys act like we are on some kind of schedule. Did I miss something? Is there a plane we have to catch? No. We’re not heading for a specific place anymore, so who cares if we switch directions? There has been no sign of Merle’s old group in a long time, maybe we’re moving away from them instead of getting closer. All I know is that I’d rather avoid the people responsible for the mess we’ve seen.”

“I’ve got to agree with Buffy”, Giles said. “Leaving the highway again might be difficult, but it would be unwise to walk straight into a possible trap.”

Andrew raised his hand. “I vote for not being shot.”

“Same here,” Xander added.

“Rule number one”, Dawn simply said.

“So, into the woods it is”, Buffy declared.

Again, the convoy turned around and headed back. They soon met up with Spike on his way back. He cursed up a storm when he was told the news, but agreed that getting off the road was a wise idea. Soon they found a dirt road close to the highway where the terrain would allow them to cross over. The road disappeared into the woods and Spike and Robin took their bikes to check if it was negotiable with the bus. Once they returned and gave the go ahead, they started off into the woods, after Robin switched places with Faith, since he was by now the most experienced bus driver.

 

They made slow progress. The road was bumpy as hell and at times they passed between trees with less than an inch to spare. Sometimes they had to stop and move fallen trees out of the way. Darkness came much sooner than out in the open, the tall trees blocking out the light and eventually they had to stop. Not daring to light a fire surrounded by all this wood, Anya passed out cans of ravioli. Nobody complained as they ate them cold, straight from the can. The wind rustling in the leaves and the noises of the dark forest made everyone nervous, since they had spent their lives in the city. Only Merle and Chao-Ahn weren’t bothered. Merle was up for first watch, so he got his brand new sleeping bag and his pillow from Willow’s bed, to move them to his truck.

“You know, I don’t mind if you keep the bed”, she told him, getting her blanket and pillow from the top bunk. “Sleeping in the pick-up will get you all ache-ey and cramped up in the morning.”

“Plenty of room in the back, princess”, Merle told her. He wasn’t used to someone worrying if he was comfortable, but it was kinda nice.

“And what if it starts to rain?”

Merle chuckled. “The trees will keep most of it away. I’ll be fine. Plus, I get the feeling I’d have a hot pink manicure in the morning if I stayed.”

Willow watched him leave. He tossed his stuff in the back off the pick-up in passing, which was parked right behind the bus and climbed the van behind it. He easily scaled it one-handed with surprising elegance. She got her bed ready and stretched out with a sigh. By now she had gotten used to sharing the top bunk with Dawn, but Willow had to admit, it was nice having a bed all of her own again. Dawn had a tendency to spread out when she was asleep, while Willow’s body moved out of the way, probably trying to avoid the elbow of doom on some subconscious level. More than once Willow had woken up on the edge of the top bunk, dangerously close to falling off. Not to mention the ice cold feet invading her space on some nights. Like this one. It had gotten rather chilly. Willow turned on her right side, pulling up her blanket to block out the whispering of the others, as they got ready for bed. She noticed a faint smell, not unpleasant and somehow familiar. It took her a while to place it. Merle. She felt around in the dark and found a blanket balled up in the upper right corner of the bed. She pulled it closer and inhaled through her nose. He had forgotten his blanket. After a moment of hesitation she spread it over her own. The night was chilly. She could still return it in the morning. Snuggling into her comfortable warm cocoon, she fell asleep.

 

Hoping to get out off the woods, they skipped breakfast. Soon the trees thinned out and changed to overgrown fields and grass. They stopped for a break and Dawn passed around the snack box. For once, nobody seemed to have much of an appetite, but they were eagerly waiting for the coffee Andrew was making. After they had their caffeine fix, they moved on. The road was still bad, but without the trees they could speed up a bit. Merle was driving behind the school bus. He felt great, even if his night had been rather short. It had felt good to sleep out in the open again, not being jammed together with so many people in a small space. Willow had approached him during their coffee break, trying to return his forgotten blanket. He hadn’t really missed it and, since he had noticed that she got cold easily, told her to keep it. His mama would have been proud; he had been the perfect southern gentleman. His dad would have laughed his ass off, if he would have been sober enough to notice. A Dixon, wasting his charms on a dyke! The temperature rose as the day wore on and everyone had the windows down, trying to catch a breeze in the stifling heat. The landscape didn’t change much, adding to the general sleepiness. Suddenly Robin, who was again driving the bus, signaled to stop. Merle, who had been close to dozing off, stepped on the brake and stuck his head out of the window.

“Hey, what’s the problem?” he hollered in irritation.

“Shannon thinks she saw something!” Robin called back.

Merle slumped back in his seat. Great, the girl had been probably dreaming. He contemplated looking for Spike or Faith; maybe he could hit them up for a smoke. As he left his car, Shannon and Buffy were climbing the bus with a pair of binoculars. They were staring off in the distance. Merle squinted. He could see something dark on the horizon, probably another forest area, but that was about it. He found Spike leaning against the bus casually. The guy was alright, offering him his pack of cigarettes without being asked. He leaned against the bus next to Spike as they smoked in silence. Merle cast a sideway glance at the Brit. His hair had gotten a bit curly while growing and there was a considerable amount of roots showing. However, he still was white as a sheet, neither getting a tan, nor showing any traces of sunburn. Merle wondered how he did it. Maybe he had a hidden stash of sun block? More people had decided to stretch their legs and were standing together in small groups, wondering why they had stopped.

“See? I told you there was a house!” Shannon squealed. “I bet there’s a well!”

They jumped down from the bus, landing gracefully as cats.

Merle threw away his nearly smoked cigarette.

“You’ve got to be kidding. There’s nothing!”

Instead of answering, Shannon handed him the binoculars and turned him slightly.

“Is that nothing?” she asked, pointing out the direction.

Merle had to admit, there was a house. The girl must put an eagle to shame with those eyes. 

“How’s the water situation?” Buffy asked.

“We’re running low, thanks to the weather”, Giles answered the question,” but do you really want to drive across the fields on the off chance there might be a well?”

Buffy frowned and looked at the dirt and weeds to her feet.

“You consider this a road?”

Decision made, they turned right and headed in the direction of the house. As they got closer, it turned out to be a large farmhouse, not far from a forest area. The place looked deserted, like it had been abandoned long before the outbreak. The yard was overgrown with weeds and the outer buildings were nothing more than decaying piles of wood. They parked and got out. Having had one too many nasty surprises, everyone carried a weapon, even if the sound of crickets was the only noise they could hear. There was indeed a water pump in the yard. It was rusty and looked pretty useless, but Giles and Shannon grabbed water canisters and hoped for the best. Fiona, Caridad and Xander provided cover. The rest spread out and did a perimeter sweep, while Dawn, Faith, Buffy and Anya headed for the house. It looked rather imposing close up. There was a porch all around the ground floor and the boards creaked ominously as they stepped on it. Getting a firm grip on her machete, Anya tried the front door. It was stuck, or locked. Getting a sense of déjà-vu, Dawn quickly scanned their surroundings. Faith noticed her look.

“You’re afraid were getting into a Texas Chainsaw Massacre situation? The house certainly looks the part”, she remarked.

“Don’t worry, if Leatherface shows up with his chainsaw, I’ll send him your way!”

Buffy shot her sister a look.

“How come you know “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”?”

Dawn rolled her eyes.

“Hello, common knowledge, part of pop culture! You don’t have to watch it to know it!”

Dawn grinned. Of course she had seen the movie. With Spike, during the summer Buffy had been gone. He had been reluctant at first, but the puppy dog eyes had worn him down. They had moved to the side of the house, where they found another door. Faith peered through a window.

“Looks like the kitchen.”

Anya tried the door and this one opened. They entered the house. There was dust and dirt everywhere and the kitchen wouldn’t look out of place in a museum. Anya went straight for another door, which, as she had assumed, lead to a pantry. While she inspected what was left on the shelves, Buffy tried the faucet. Nothing happened. Faith looked at the floor. She couldn’t be sure, now that they had walked all around the kitchen, but she thought there had been footprints in the dust when they entered. She shrugged it off. Anya held up a can with a faded label.

“Tuna; expiration date 1985! Anyone up for food poisoning?”

She tossed it back, not even bothering with the mason jars further up, their ancient contents having turned into brownish mush.

Dawn tried another door. It was a swinging door and the loud squeaking noise it emitted made them jump.

“Oops, sorry”, she said sheepishly.

Behind the door was a dining room. The huge table had probably once been the pride of the lady of the house. Now it was covered in dust. Otherwise, the room was empty. They returned to the kitchen and opened the second door. It led to a rather dark hallway.

“We should have brought flashlights”, Dawn commented as they turned left and entered the living room.

While it was spacious, the moth-eaten curtains still covering the windows blocked out most of the sunlight. Buffy tripped over something and there was a loud clanking noise.

“Jesus, are you trying to give us a heart attack?” Faith hissed.

“I’d never thought slayers could be this clumsy...” Anya muttered.

“Hey, it’s kinda dark in here!” Buffy said defensively.

Anya went to the largest window and resolutely grabbed the curtain. It crashed to the floor in a cloud of dust. Noting the scandalized looks on the other’s faces, she shrugged.

“What? If there was someone hiding in this house, they would have noticed us by now!”

They looked around. There were dozens of empty bottles all over the floor, but they had been there for years, judging by the dust. The furniture consisted of a couch and two armchairs, all of them spilling their stuffing from various rips and tears. Seeing nothing of interest, the women returned to the hallway. There was one more room; completely empty.

“Upstairs next?” Dawn suggested and eyed the stairs, not sure they would hold up. Faith paused, spotting a door under the stairs. It looked like a built-in wardrobe. She opened it and let out a low whistle.

“Guys? You have to see this!”

The closet was tiny. A coat, now nothing more than rags, was still on a hanger. Someone had spread a dirty old blanket on the floor inside and there were two empty mason jars. Faith picked one up. Anya peered into the closet.

“So? We’ve already seen in the living room that homeless people lived here.” 

Wordlessly Faith handed her the jar.

“Ugh, that thing is dirty and sticky…wait, if it’s sticky, it couldn’t be that old!”

She gingerly sniffed it.

“Peaches; probably from the pantry. Someone must have been really desperate to try those.”

“And small,” Dawn mused. “Even Buffy would have a hard time fitting in there.”

“Hey, I heard that!” Buffy called and came over to have a look.

Her expression turned serious.

“Anyone else thinking a child had been hiding in there?”

Faith nodded.

“I thought I’ve seen footprints in the kitchen, small ones, but I wasn’t sure.”

“But…we’ve got to do something!” Anya exclaimed. “Humans are pretty fragile anyway and the small ones are entirely helpless!”

“She’s right,” Dawn agreed, turning pleading eyes to her sister. Suddenly she was looking much younger than seventeen.

“We have no idea how long ago the kid stayed here…” Buffy cautioned.

“But we could try!”

“I think it’s been pretty recent,” Faith said. “I mean, you can still smell the peaches on the jar.”

“Then we should send out search parties while we still have daylight. Let’s go!”

Buffy turned and headed for the kitchen, the others hot on her heels.

 

Outside, while some where still busy filling up water canisters, now that they finally got the pump working, the rest of their group were sitting in the shadow by the school bus. They quickly snapped to attention, seeing the faces of the women coming from the house.

“We need search parties”, Buffy told them without preamble. “We found traces of a kid hiding inside the house not too long ago. If it’s still in the area, we have to find it before the zombies get it.”

“Preferably before nightfall”, Anya added.

Buffy hesitated. She knew that, if the child was still out there, Spike probably had the best chance finding it, but she couldn’t risk it.

“Spike, Andrew; you stay back and keep an eye on things here.”

Spike looked like he was about to protest, but one glance and he understood. Buffy didn’t want to take risks, not after what they had seen on the highway. She wanted as many people on the search as possible. If someone attacked camp, Spike had the best chance to deal with them.

“As for the rest: small groups; three people, max. I have a feeling, the forest might be our best bet, so be careful. I want everyone back before it gets dark, never mind the flashlights. We can’t risk getting lost in the woods.”

With satisfaction, Buffy watched as they split up into teams without much fuss. Dawn stood by her side, waiting for Anya, who had decided to trade the machete for a crossbow. As Willow passed them, Buffy held her back.

“Uhm, Wills, any chance you could do a locator spell or something?” she quietly asked.

Willow shook her head. “Sorry, but I’d need more information for that. We don’t even know if we’re looking for a boy or a girl. “

Buffy sighed. “So I guess we’ve got to do this the old-fashioned way.”

One by one the search teams left.

 

“All set to go?” Rona asked, slinging a bag across her shoulder. She had packed a few bottles of water, flashlights and a small first aid kit.

Merle and Xander nodded.

“I’d like to see the house first”, Merle said.

As they crossed the porch, he kept looking at the ground. He opened the door to the kitchen, but didn’t enter.

“We should get going”, Rona pointed out. “We’re losing daylight.”

Merle grunted. “Wouldn’t do to run off without knowing what we are looking for.”

He intently studied the dusty floor, with Xander and Rona waiting impatiently by the door. Then his face lit up and he got down on one knee by the sink.

“Got you! See?”

Rona and Xander came over. There was the faint print of a sneaker, right next to some smeared boot prints.

“How do you know it’s from the kid?” Xander asked curiously.

“Easy”, Merle explained, “it’s the smallest. The boots are Buffy’s, they’re only slightly bigger. Anya’s and Faith’s are the ones by the pantry and the other sneaker prints belong to Dawn. That girl has some big feet.”

“No wonder, she’s freaky tall…” Rona pointed out.

Merle got up. “Ok, let’s go.”

They left the house and followed the porch to the back, then crossed the distance to the tree line. Merle had his eyes glued to the ground. As they reached the edge of the forest, he abruptly stopped and started to walk along the trees. Xander and Rona looked at each other, but then just shrugged and trailed along. Merle seemed to know what he was doing. Soon he paused to examine the ground, then looked up and studied some leaves on a bush.

“This way”, he said and headed off into the woods.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sigh. Do you know that feeling: there's a part of your story you're really looking forward to write, but once you reach that point you find it rather difficult? That's what happened here. Our heros are going to met another TWD character. Once again I'm in denial and decided to keep someone alive. Hope you like it!

“I get a feeling we’re never going to find back…“ Xander muttered and whipped his face with the hem of his shirt.

It was sometime in the late afternoon. While the trees blocked some of the sunlight, it was still hot.

“We’re going to find her and we’re going to make it back!” Rona stated with a determined face.

“Her? How do you know it’s a girl?”

Rona stopped and turned around.

“Didn’t you notice? The prints are only slightly smaller than Buffy’s, so the kid must be older. The footprint we saw in the mud near the creek earlier didn’t look like it was from someone heavy and going by the broken twigs in the bushes the person must be around this size.”

She held up her hand to her chest. 

“Wow; should I start calling you Sherlock Holmes?”

“Hey, keep up!” Merle impatiently called from ahead and Rona and Xander hurried to follow him.

As they slipped through the dense undergrowth, they noticed more broken twigs. They were obviously on the right track.

“Fuck!”

Merle suddenly stopped, causing Rona and Xander to nearly bump into him.

“We’ve got company”, he announced. “See those tracks? Walkers; they always drag their feet.”

“Shit, I hope we’re not too late”, Rona muttered and took off, not bothering to see if the men were following her.

They ran through the bushes, ducking under branches and skidded to a stop when they reached a small clearing. Two zombies, whom had been milling around a tree, immediately turned their attention to them. Rona drew the sword from her back and decapitated one. The other one had stumbled past her, but Merle dispatched it with a blade to the head. Wrinkling her nose, Rona kicked the head out of the way and looked around. A third zombie was lying near a tree on the ground, its head a bloody pulp. A bloodied rock was next to it.

“Looks like someone else took care of this guy”, Xander mused, “but no trace of the kid.”

Rona reclined her head and squinted up into the trees.

“Uhm, guys…” she said, pointing up.

Someone was up there; a small figure barely visible from the ground.

“It’s ok, you can come down, they’re gone”, Rona called.

Minutes went by, but no reaction. Rona finally dropped her sword and bag.

“Can you give me a lift?” she asked Xander.

With his help she managed to grab the lowest branch and climbed up. From the ground, Xander nervously watched her progress. It was slow, with Rona testing each branch to see if it would hold her weight. Halfway up, she paused.

“I was right; it’s a little girl, but I think she’s injured. Her arm’s looking kinda weird,” Rona called, looking down. “Ok honey; don’t be scared, I’m going to help you down!”

She continued up until she reached the girl. She was dressed in a blue t-shirt, her chin-length hair so dirty, it was impossible to tell what color it was. The girl was wedged between a branch and the trunk, clinging to it with one arm. The other one was dangling at her side, the forearm bend at an ode angle. 

“See, I’m here; everything’s going to be ok”, Rona said in low voice, trying not to scare her. She got no reaction; the girl didn’t move.

Fearing the worst, Rona watched her closely. When she saw that the girl was still breathing, she stretched out her arm and gingerly brushed aside the hair covering her face. She had dried blood on her forehead and her face was smeared with dirt. Her eyes were screwed shut.

“Look, you’ve gotta let go, so I can help you down. Try to hold on to me and I’ll get us down safely.”

Still no reaction. Rona sighed. This wasn’t going to be easy. She tried to loosen up the girls arm from the trunk, when her eyes flew open and she screamed, trying to move away.

 

Merle heard the scream as someone came crashing down. He reacted on instinct and jumped forward, trying to catch the person tumbling down the tree. He caught her, the impact knocking him down. Before he had a chance to recover, all hell broke loose. He tried to move his prosthesis out of the way to avoid injuring the girl, but she got hold of his arm and pushed down, still screaming. His right arm was pressed to his neck, cutting off his breathing. He tried to fight back, but found it to be nearly impossible. The girl was much stronger than she looked and it took all of his strength to hold her off. If his arm had been in a slightly different position, the blade would have already taken his head off. He tried to shake her off, but she didn’t budge. Breathing was becoming an issue and he was beginning to see stars. Then she was gone and he sucked in huge gulps of breath.

“You ok?” Rona asked anxiously.

“Guess so,” Merle rasped.

He looked at the crumpled heap lying next to him.

“You killed her?”

“No, just knocked her out. I’m sorry, I didn’t know…” Rona trailed of, looking at Xander.

Merle missed the exchange, as he tried to get up and catch his breath.

“We need to get back, like now, before she wakes up,” Xander said and picked up the discarded bag.

“Right”, Rona agreed. She picked up the girl and slung it over her shoulder unceremoniously, looking at Merle expectantly.

“You know the way back, right?”

 

Buffy was pacing. The girls were hanging out along the porch, pretending not to pay attention to her pacing, but making sure to stay out of her way. All search teams had reported back, with the exception of one. Rona and Merle. She should have anticipated something like this. The sun was going down already. If those two had decided to continue after dark there would be hell to pay. They would be on kitchen duty indefinitely, if they were still alive.

“Relax, they’re going to be back any minute now”, Faith tried to calm her down.

She was sitting on the floor, looking completely at ease with her back leaning against the kitchen door.

“Yeah, Xander will make sure they’re not going to try anything stupid”, Willow chimed in from her perch on the railing.

Buffy whirled around. “Oh, like Xander is totally responsible!”

“Not really, but his self-preservation instinct is pretty strong…”

“They’re coming!” Dawn, who’d had her eyes fixed on the tree line, called out.

Three figures emerged from the woods and rushed towards the farm house in the fading light. Rona, with Xander and Merle visibly struggling to keep up, was carrying someone in her arms.

“We found her! We need Chao-Ahn!” she called as soon as she was within hearing distance.

Without being told, two of the junior slayers dashed off. Chao-Ahn grabbed the small bag containing her “doctor stuff” she had started to carry around and got up.

“Put her on the table in the dining room”, Faith suggested, opening the kitchen door when they reached the house. “Get some light!”

She was about to go ahead, but stopped in her tracks when she saw Merle.

“What the hell happened to him?”

Xander was slightly out of breath, but Merle was leaning against the railing, his breath coming in short, wheezing gasps.

“She nearly chocked him”, Rona explained, as the two girls with the box of medical supplies returned. They had also brought additional flashlights. “Maybe Chao-Ahn should check him out first.”

 

In the dining room, Rona placed the girl on the table, while a few girls positioned themselves around the room with flashlights to provide sufficient illumination. Willow started to take inventory of the girl’s numerous cuts and bruises. She was young, even younger than Meredith, dressed in ripped cargo pants and a t-shirt, whose bright blue color and rainbow print was still visible from under the layers of dirt and blood covering her.

“I think it looks worse than it is, aside from her arm. She’s got some cuts, but they are only superficial. Most of the blood is just zombie goo. The left arm looks like it was broken and healed up all wrong…”

The girl on the table started to moan and began to move.

“Willow, you better step back”, Rona warned.

The girl’s eyes fluttered open and widened in panic as she saw all the people surrounding her. She began to scream and trash around. Willow jumped back, narrowly avoiding being hit. Fiona dropped the flashlight she had been holding and moved to help Rona restrain the girl, receiving a kick to the stomach in the process that send her flying into the wall. Chao-Ahn, who had been examining Merle, threw the lid of the box with their medical supplies and started digging through packages, while Buffy and Faith helped Rona to hold the girl down.

“Do something”, Rona called, struggling to keep her hold on the girl, who was now fighting in earnest. “If we keep this up, we might hurt her even more!”

Chao-Ahn seemed to have finally found something useful, but didn’t look convinced when she hastily scanned the package insert.

“Chao-Ahn!”

Throwing caution to the wind, Chao-Ahn prepared a syringe.

“Keep her still; I need to get this in her arm”, she said.

Buffy re-adjusted her grip and Chao-Ahn managed to get the needle into the girl’s upper arm. 

“Keep holding her; I don’t know how long it takes or if it works at all”, she told the girls keeping her patient restrained.

“What did you give her?” Willow asked.

“Midazolam”, Chao-Ahn answered.

They waited with bated breathes, but after a while the girl’s movements became sluggish and finally stopped. Chao-Ahn immediately started preparing an i.v. and added two vials of a different drug to the bag of ringer solution.

“Valium”, she explained as she handed the bag to Rona and carefully adjusted the drip.

“Isn’t this a bit much?” Dawn asked tentatively.

Faith snorted. “You’ll need a shitload of drugs to keep a slayer down. Trust me, this is nothing compared to what the council used.”

She took in the crowd gathered in the doorway.

“If you’re all here, who’s setting up camp?”

“Uhm, Giles, Andrew, Spike, Robin, Anya…I think Xander went back too…” Dawn trailed off.

“Ok ladies, as you might guess, we’re probably going to stay here for a while, so get your asses back to camp and help. As you noticed, she’s alive and kicking. She’s just going to panic again with so many people hanging around. And get Giles.”

Reluctantly, the girls left. Willow had started to clean the girl’s face with a gauze pad and water from a bottle.

“Shit, that’s Sophia!”

Merle was still sitting on the floor in a corner, briefly forgotten during the mayhem, his voice just a horse whisper. Faith whirled around.

“What did you say? Sophia? Do you know her?”

She stared at him, and then exploded.

“Are you kidding me? I asked you if there was someone named Sophia in your group and you said no! That message on the windshield was for her!”

“Look, I forgot. She’s just a kid; was hiding behind her mom most of the time”, Merle defended himself.

“No talking!” Chao-Ahn admonished and kneeled down next to him. She turned his head towards her and continued to examine him.

“No permanent damage, just bruising”, she announced after feeling along his neck. “Try to not speak too much for a while.”

Ignoring her, Merle pointedly looked at Buffy.

“Now, I’d like some answers and don’t try to give me that PCP bullshit like your sister. What are you? Cheerleaders on steroids?”

Buffy tried to come up with an explanation that didn’t sound completely mental, finding none. She had no idea how to do this, explaining slayers and vampires was usually Giles’s job. She looked at Faith in a silent plea for help, but her sister slayer just shrugged.

“You wanted to wait ‘till he asked.”

Rona held up her hands.

“Don’t look at me; I’m just the newbie.”

Willow and Chao-Ahn had their attention focused on their patient, so no help there. Buffy took a deep breath.

“Into every generation…no, outdated… when I was fifteen…no, that’ll take ages… maybe we should wait for Giles…”

“Rona, can you look for something we might use as a splint?” Willow interrupted. “And Faith, Buffy; can you hold her down again for a moment?”

“Sure, but why? She’s sleeping like a baby”, Buffy answered, glad for the delay of the inevitable.

“She might wake up when we break her arm”, Willow explained.

“What?!?”

“Her left arm was broken – open fracture, you can still see where the bone pierced the skin- and since it wasn’t treated it healed up all wrong. If we don’t fix it, she might never be able to use it properly again”, the redhead elaborated.

Buffy shifted uncomfortably.

“And you really have to break it again? Do you even know how to do that?”

“I broke my arm once when I was young”, Chao-Ahn said,” it was only half-broken, so my watcher had to break it fully to treat it. I’ve seen how it was done.”

Rona returned with the clothes rail from the hallway.

“Would that be ok? It’s the best I could find.”

Willow nodded. “We need two pieces, about the length of her forearm.”

Rona easily snapped the wood like it was nothing. Willow took the pieces and got bandages and tape from the supply box.

“I think we’re good to go, but maybe we should give her more sedative.”

Chao-Ahn agreed and turned up the i.v.. Faith looked around for something to hang the i.v. bag, but finding nothing, handed it back to Rona. Chao-Ahn carefully felt along Sophia’s arm. Upon finding what she had been looking for, she took the girl’s forearm in both hands and nodded for Faith and Buffy to take their positions. Buffy looked at Faith.

“Ready”, she said.

The sound was faint, but it still made everyone in the room jump. Sophia twitched, but otherwise didn’t move.

“Dear Lord!” Giles commented the scene he was witnessing upon entering.

“Shh”, Willow hissed.

Chao-Ahn exhaled.

“Now comes the difficult part. Hold on.”

One hand on Sophia’s shoulder, she took hold of her wrist and pulled. The girl whimpered and tossed her head. Buffy and Faith quickly tightened their grip. The Chinese slayer re-adjusted her hold and carefully rotated the lower part of Sophia’s forearm. She repeated the process several times, checking the position of the bones in between until she finally leaned back.

“Done. Normally you would take an x-ray, but this will have to do. ”

Willow passed her the pieces of the clothes rail and together they wrapped the arm. While they worked, Willow explained the situation to Giles.

“…so we had to fix her arm while she’s still out. I bet we can take off the splint in about a day, you know, with slayer healing and all.”

“You are absolutely sure she’s a slayer?” Giles asked, looking at the small girl on the table. “I mean, the chances for running into one like this are close to non-existent. She could be a half-breed … “

Buffy shook her head. “Nope, I don’t think so; I don’t get demon vibes from her.”

“Yeah, it’s like I already know her, like a sister”, Rona said.

“She is family”, Chao-Ahn stated firmly.

“Yeah, and she damn near killed Merle”, Faith added, nodding towards Merle, who was still sitting in the corner.

It was very un-Merle like to be this silent, Buffy thought, so he must be really whipped out.

“Well, it is common for a newly called slayer to not be in full control of her strength…” Giles started.

Suddenly Faith’s head snapped up.

“Wait a minute, something isn’t making sense here!” she interrupted. “She might be untrained, but she can’t be new; it’s been ages since we left Sunnydale. So how come Merle doesn’t remember her? Sure, he may not have been exactly percepto-guy back then, but I doubt she was this good at pretending to be your average girl.”

Willow sheepishly raised her hand.

“Uhm, I think I have an explanation.”

All eyes turned on her. Giles expression grew alarmed.

“She might still have been a potential”, she continued.

“But the spell…”

“How is it possible...?”

Giles mouth turned into a thin line. “Willow, what have you done?”

Willow wrung her hands. “Look it wasn’t a big change; I just tweaked the slayer activation spell a bit…”

“Have you lost your mind?” Giles barked. “Changing a ritual of this magnitude? I thought you have learned some responsibility, but apparently I was wrong. You weren’t even sure you could do it and then you made changes without consulting me first?”

“It was a last minute thought, ok? I’ve read those watcher’s diaries; I knew how difficult it could be for a new slayer to control her strength and then I was scared to give that kind of power to every potential, no matter how old she is. Buffy was a teenager, she could at least understand that she had to be careful. What about, say, a three year old? I just didn’t want some little girl to hug her mom and snap her neck by accident!”

Giles calmed down at the sight of Willow’s distress.

“I’m not angry; we just need to know what you’ve done with the spell.”

“I just didn’t want to be responsible for getting someone killed; for a girl to become a killer”, Willow whispered. “According to the watcher’s diaries, the youngest slayer ever called was eleven, so I stuck with that. I added an age limit. Girls would still be potentials until they reached puberty and then I would give them a choice, the same choice I gave to all of them.”

“Are you ready to be strong?” Rona and Chao-Ahn whispered in unison.

“Buffy and Faith never had a choice; being called messed up their lives on so many levels, I wanted the girls to be able to choose. How was I supposed to know there would be zombies?” Willow finished in a miserable tone.

“Still, you should have discussed it with me,” Giles said, his anger gone.

“There was no time. I didn’t think about it until I set up the ritual and it was too late and then I kinda panicked.”

“Can someone finally tell me what the fuck you’re talking about?”

Merle wanted to scream, but his bruised throat prevented it.

“Maybe we should go outside and sit on the porch, because this might take a while, “Buffy sighed and looked at Faith. 

“You and Giles go ahead,” she answered. “Rona and I better stick around in case the baby slayer wakes up again.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon,” Willow said. “Maybe someone should get something to eat and maybe some blankets. It’s going to be a long night.”

“I’ll go,” Rona volunteered.

 

Buffy sat down cross-legged on the dark porch. Merle stood, arms crossed.

“You better sit down for this,” Buffy suggested.

Reluctantly he sat down, his back against the wall. Giles leaned against the railing, obviously letting her do the talking. She couldn’t see Merle’s face in the dark, which made it somehow easier. Buffy took a deep breath.

“Ok, at the beginning, when humans still lived in caves, they weren’t alone. They had to share with vampires, demons and all kinds of nasties, who pretty much ruled the world. A bunch of old guys, shamans, known as the shadow men, had enough of being at the bottom of the food chain and decided to create a weapon. They took a girl and did a magic ritual, putting the heart, the essence, of a demon into her. She became the first slayer. She was faster and stronger than normal humans, so she could fight the demons. In the end, she got killed anyway and her powers were passed on to the next girl. This is how the slayer line started. The next girl wasn’t a random, but one of a group we call potentials, normal girls who might become the next slayer if the current one dies, although we’re not entirely sure if it was like this from the beginning.”  
She paused. “In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer. That’s how it was like, forever. The shadow men changed over time and became the council of watchers, a bunch of stuffy British men – sorry Giles- whose job was to find and train potentials and assist the slayer. Normally, potentials were identified when they were still young and assigned a watcher, but they somehow missed me. I was a normal high school girl, living in LA, when one day an old guy named Merrick told me I was called. Of course I thought he was crazy, but I soon learned the hard way he was telling me the truth. I was fifteen.” Buffy paused again, waiting for a reaction. By now he should start laughing or screaming or maybe trying to get away as fast as possible. Maybe she should have brought Spike, like a live exhibit.

Demons and vampires, right. But then, he was seeing fucking walking corpses on a daily basis. Considering that, her story was more believable than gangs on PCP. Or cheerleaders on steroids. Hell, he had seen these girls fight; they were defiantly not normal.

“So, those walkers…”

“Are a human created mess, nothing supernatural about them, that was the truth. We never lied to you; we just… didn’t mention a few things. We thought you might freak out or think we’re crazy. People have a tendency to come up with all kinds of lame-ass explanations for all the things that go bump in the night. When I finally told my mom, she believed me, but kicked me out. She was so angry I hadn’t told her.”

Merle stayed silent for a while.

“So, every one of you is one of these …slayers?” he finally asked.

“Not all of us. The girls, Faith and I are.”

“Dawn?”

Buffy chuckled.

“No, just my normal, sometimes annoying, baby sister”, she said, “but she grew up in Sunnydale and hanging out with me and my friends, she learned how to fight.”

Merle turned his gaze on Giles.

“And you are one of those watchers? What about Robin and Xander? Andrew? Spike?”

“Yes, I’m a watcher; probably the last one. Robin; his mother was a slayer. After she was killed, her watcher raised him and he became something of a rouge demon hunter. Xander is just a normal human…”

“A normal human, who was never afraid to do what had to be done!” Buffy interjected. “I mean, he saved my life!”

“How come?” Merle asked.

“I drowned. There was this prophecy, about some butt-ugly vamp called the Master, who would kill me. I drowned and was dead for like, a few seconds. Xander CPRd me and I came back, but I was dead long enough for Kendra to be called”, Buffy explained.

“Who the fuck is Kendra?”

“She was the new slayer. That’s how the slayer line was messed up in the first place. When I died for just a short while, she was called. When she was killed later, Faith was called.”

“But now there are more than you two, like Sophia. You said something about a spell…”

“Right, that was Willow. We were fighting, like the mother ship off all things evil, the First, as in the first evil. It was more subtle than your average nastie. I mean, those usually just rolled into town and announced they would open the Hellmouth, like Apocalypse now, end of the world. The First send out its minions to kill all the potentials, ending the slayer line and destroy the council, so a lot of potentials started to show up in Sunnydale, send there by their watchers, because, their watchers thought they would be save there. In the end, the First made the same mistake like all the others; it liked to taunt, rub it in that I was the only one. So Willow, who’s a pretty powerful witch, did a spell, to give all the potentials the full slayer package. So, I’m not the only one anymore. Oh, and Andrew? Average guy, but he used to summon demons, so I guess he is kind of a magic user. And Spike well, he’s a vampire.”

“Vampire? Wait, aren’t they supposed to die when they are out during sunlight? And I’ve seen him eating food…”

“Uhm, we got some magical amulet, supposed to be worn by a champion, as in champion for the good, during the fight with the First. Spike wore it and he got kinda stuck with it permanently, it melted into his skin. We think that’s the reason why he’s suddenly sun proof.”

“Since we lost our resources, we can’t research it”, Giles supplied.

“And he just likes human food”, Buffy added. “He was always a bit non-traditional.”

Merle sighed. “Anything more I should know?”

“Oh, yeah about Anya…”

“She a vampire too?”

“No, but she used to be a demon…”

“What? Now that’ll explain some things…”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm beginning to understand why there are so many unfinished crossover stories out there. It's the whole explanation thing you have to deal with at one point or another! Here you are, wanting to get on with the story, but there are characters who need to be brought up on facts. Well, I did my best...

Buffy carefully disentangled from Spike’s arms and crawled out of the van, patting herself on the back for not bumping her head this time. She stretched and looked around. Despite the excitement from last night everyone had been doing their job. The cars were parked in the usual circle formation, with the guards on top. Going by the large pot Anya was stirring over the campfire, breakfast would be some kind of porridge today. Caridad was preparing coffee, while the rest of the kitchen crew set up the table. Buffy got a mug and went to check if the coffee was ready. She had a feeling she was going to need it today.

“Good morning; Spike still sleeping?” Caridad greeted her.

Damn, so they had noticed. Since Faith had opted to spend the night keeping an eye on things at the house, Spike had stayed with Buffy.

“Yeah, but I guess he’s going to be up pretty soon”, Buffy answered.

“Did he ever sleep during the day? As far as I know, he was always hanging around during daytime, even before the amulet thing”, Caridad wondered.

“Not really. He liked to spend the days watching soaps. Looks like a lot of people are still sleeping,” Buffy remarked in an attempt to change the subject.

Caridad removed the filter from the first thermos and topped off the remaining ones with hot water. Buffy immediately poured herself a mug.

“Just the ones who had the midnight to morning shift on watch,” Caridad answered. “Faith, Chao-Ahn and Willow are still at the house; Rona and your sister went to see if they wanted anything for breakfast. Robin took Andrew and Vi out for a quick patrol; he’s afraid there might be more zombies lurking in those woods. But what’s the deal with Merle? He’s usually pestering everyone for coffee as soon as he’s up. Did he get injured so badly he’s lost his voice?” 

“I don’t think so, but I guess he’s a bit shaken. Not from nearly being chocked. I told him last night,” Buffy explained.

Caridad whistled.

“Now I get why he was kinda jumpy when I said good morning…”

“It went better than expected, I mean, I thought he would have a major freak-out, but he just asked a few things and then went to sleep. I guess everything is now starting to set in.”

Spike crawled out of the van and stretched leisurely. He came over and put his arms around Buffy, giving her kiss on the cheek.

“Mornin, sunshine,” he said before heading to the table to get a coffee mug.

Buffy, out of habit, froze for a second at this public display of affection, but then remembered that she wasn’t hiding their relationship anymore. Caridad didn’t bat an eyelash. Giles, looking like he was still half asleep, joined them. He poured hot water over the tea bag in his mug and looked at Spike, who was sipping his coffee.

“I can’t fathom how you can stomach that swill in the morning,” he muttered.

“Probably because I’ve been in America longer than you are alive,” Spike answered. “Tried to get a decent cuppa for ages; think I gave up sometime during the sixties.”

“So, what’s for breakfast,” Buffy asked.

“Porridge with canned pineapple and coconut flakes. There’s also some strawberry sauce, but it’s only one bottle, so it’s probably gone soon,” Caridad answered.

“I’ll pass; I’ve already eaten,” Spike joked. His expression grew slightly panicked, as he realized belatedly what he just said in the presence of Giles.

“What he wanted to say was…” Buffy started to explain, but Giles just looked pointedly at the bite mark adorning her neck.

“I’m neither blind nor stupid. Just be careful to not become anemic,” he said tiredly. 

“Like I would let that happen…” Spike huffed.

“Hey, there’s Faith!” Buffy tried to defuse the situation.

To her relief, it worked. Faith was heading straight for the coffee, Rona and Dawn trailing behind.

“I just came to get breakfast, Willow just woke up and Chao-Ahn didn’t want to leave Sophia alone. Everything ok here?” Faith asked, pouring herself some coffee. She took a sip and closed her eyes with an expression of pure bliss.

“I think we’ll need a new rule; Caridad should be the only one making coffee, ok, maybe Andrew should be allowed to skip in.”

“Thanks, I guess. Now if I could get out of laundry duty, we might have deal,” Caridad grinned.

“How’s the munchkin?” Spike asked.

“Five by five. The minor scrapes are healed and Chao-Ahn thinks she can take the splint off in a few hours.”

“Remarkable,” Giles said,” I mean, I’ve seen slayer healing first hand, but for a broken arm to heal this fast…”

“Hey, mine healed instantly. It was like “Hello Slayer powers, bye-bye cast!” Rona chimed in. “Which was kind of neat, considering the injuries I got afterwards.”

“Yeah, keep on talking about super healing in front of the girl who was stuck with that stupid, itchy cast like, forever. Now I’m getting slayer envy…” Dawn muttered.

“Anyway, they want to keep her drugged for a bit longer, just in case. Won’t do any good for her to wake up and break it again, I mean, you’ve seen how she was,” Faith continued. “They want to wake her up during the afternoon.”

“Maybe it would help, if she was seeing a few familiar faces, like Rona or maybe Merle, since he was with her group,” Giles suggested.

“Good idea”, Buffy agreed. “Maybe we should have Meredith around too.”

“Well, I better get some food or there’s going to be one grumpy witch,” Faith said.

Dawn, who had been watching Merle, frowned.

“Is he ok? I mean no coffee… and he’s sitting by his truck all on his own; that’s pretty un-Merle…”

“I guess he’s in a bit of a shock after last night,” Buffy mused.

“What did you tell him?”

“Not too much, I guess. Just the basic slayer/watcher history and a bit about the First; if I would have given him the full Sunnydale chronicles…”

“So you didn’t tell him about the whole Glory thing?” Dawn asked.

“No, like I said, I just gave him the basics,” Buffy said, realizing what Dawn was asking.

“Well, then I’m getting him some coffee and see if he wants to talk; I bet by now he’s got tons of questions,” Dawn said resolutely.

“Go ahead, but try to stay away from the more gruesome stuff. I think I already screwed up by telling him about Anya,” Buffy said.

“She’s not going to like it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she’s still kind of proud of her demon days and loves to talk about evisceration and decomposing penisses, but she’s a bit touchy about being labeled “the ex-demon”.”

“You really think? Great, maybe you should tell Merle about my time as beer-induced cave slayer to make up for it…”

“Oh, I’d like to hear that story,” Faith said eagerly.

 

Carrying two mugs, Dawn marched up to Merle.

“I come bearing caffeine goodness!”

He absentmindedly took one, his eyes never leaving Anya over by the campfire.

Dawn sat down next to him.

“Are you suddenly scared she might add in a few zombie eyes?”

“No,” Merle grunted,”but how can you live with these…things? I thought a slayer was supposed to kill them?”

“Wow, stop right there!” Dawn exclaimed, holding her hands up, not noticing that she spilled coffee all over her jeans. “Prejudiced much? First of all, they are people, not things and secondly, that’s the same kind of black and white thinking that always pissed me off about the council. You know, that whole slay first, ask questions later attitude. You’ve been around Spike and Anya for weeks and suddenly everything changes just because you found out what they are or used to be? Newsflash, not every demon is just plain evil – ok a lot of them are – but I’ve also met some pretty bad humans! So, I suggest you might want to use your brain before talking!”

In a huff, Dawn got up and headed for the house. She was so upset; she didn’t even bother to stop for food.

Buffy, who had watched the exchange from the distance, turned to Giles.

“What now?”

“Obviously Mr. Dixon will need some time to adjust,” Giles said.

“Understatement of the year; I just hope Anya didn’t hear.”

Buffy was glad Spike wasn’t around anymore. Dawn on the warpath was bad enough, but the last thing she needed right now was for the whole group to get into a fight and bring up old conflicts. She looked at Giles uncertainly.

“It was me, right? I blew it. I should have done it differently, but no, I just had to tell him about Anya and Spike right away instead of giving him more time to come to grips with the whole slayer thing. Might as well go over and tell him that Dawn was some glowy energy ball just a few years back, not that it would make it worse anyway.”

“No,” Giles said,” under the circumstances it wouldn’t have gone much different, no matter how you approached the conversation. The zombie situation was a shock even for us; now imagine how it must be for people not used to deal with the supernatural.” He absentmindedly played with the string of his teabag. “Don’t get me wrong, but just look at him: do you think he spend his life in an open-minded environment? Do you think he grew up with opportunities for intellectual growth?”

Buffy raised her eyebrows.

“So, you think he’s dumb and narrow-minded?”

“No, I just wanted to point out that we are formed by our environment and I get the feeling that Mr. Dixon’s home life wasn’t that different from Xander’s, but Xander met people who provided a different perspective on life, enabling him to grow as a person.”

“Ok, I get it. And we have to remember that some pretty nasty stuff happened to him…” Buffy mused.

“Exactly; I think he’s a smart man and just needs some time.”

“God,” Buffy sighed, brushing her hair back,” and I thought handling the minis was hard. You know, as much as I hated Walsh, but her classes are starting to come in handy.”

 

As breakfast was winding down, Buffy got up. Time to discuss a few things.

“Ok, everyone!”

Conversations stopped and expectant faces turned towards her. Buffy took a deep breath. Showtime.

“Alright, now you all know about the girl. Her name is Sophia and she has been out on her own for some time. We’re pretty sure she’s a slayer.”

She looked around.

“As you might also already know, Chao-Ahn and Willow kept her sedated and plan on brining her out later in the day. Please, remember she’s shocked and confused, so give her some room. I want Merle and Rona to be there, since they are familiar faces. Meredith, would you be ok with becoming some kind of mentor/big sister to her? Sophia is still a kid and there’s a lot of stuff that needs to get explained and you are the one closest to her age.”

Meredith seemed to be slightly overwhelmed.

“I don’t know,” she said uncertainly. “Wouldn’t it be better if you or Faith did that? You two have been slayers for much longer. ”

“Maybe, but I think she could relate much better to you.”

Meredith thought about it, then straightened up and squared her shoulders.

“Ok, count me in.”

“Good. Now, since Sophia needs some serious R&R as well as some basic training, we’re going to stay here for a while. You all know what that means: laundry, patrol, getting firewood…”

Robin, who had returned earlier with his sweep team, raised his hand.

“I think this place isn’t so bad; there’s potential. We’ve got water and the house is still in decent shape. We’ve already discussed settling down somewhere and it might be worth considering.”

“Are you daft?” Spike protested. “It’s completely exposed, well, except for the back. There we’ve got the woods, where anything could sneak up on us and we wouldn’t notice until they knocked on the back door.”

“We could always build a fence or wall, no problem,” Xander objected.

“Don’t forget supplies,” Anya pointed out. “If we have to drive for a day to even get to the nearest house, how we are supposed to get stuff? This place is like, nowhere, and we need at least a few good scavenging spots nearby. It would be crazy to waste precious fuel and then come back with a can of peas and a roll of toilet paper.”

“Speaking off supplies,” Andrew chimed in,” we are still good, but if we stay for longer, we might need to stock up again. Not that we’re running out of food soon, but I just want to make sure we’re not down to our last can of tomatoes,” he hastily added. “I just like to be prepared, you know.”

The noise level quickly rose, as people started to discuss, so finally Faith whistled to get their attention back on topic.

“There are a lot of things to deal with before we can start looking for a place to stay. First priority is still finding Merle’s old group and that just got even more important, because now we’re not only looking for his brother, but also for Sophia’s mum. I know that this seems more and more like mission impossible, but we have been heading in the right direction and maybe Sophia can give us some clues. About the supply situation; I’d like for several small teams to scout the area for settlements. They should not only get supplies, but also more information about our location. We’re pretty sure we’ve been somewhere on Interstate 85, but that’s about it, so our map isn’t much use right now.”

It was decided that Chao-Ahn, Willow, Buffy, Giles, Merle, Anya, Andrew and Faith would stay behind. The scout teams would head out on foot, to save gas and stay out all day. Once everything was settled, teams formed quickly, gathered weapons and supplies and left.

 

Buffy cracked open the door and slipped silently into the kitchen. Plastic plates and mugs from breakfast were stacked on the counter. She peered into the dining room. Sophia was still lying on the table, her face relaxed in her drug-induced sleep. Chao-Ahn was sitting on the floor, her back leaning against the wall. She had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and appeared to be sleeping too. Willow was sitting cross-legged by the medical supply box, a notepad in her lap, sorting through packages and taking notes. When she heard the door, she looked up.

“Hey there, how’s it going,” Buffy whispered as she sat down next her friend.

“Pretty good, actually.” Willow checked her watch. “I’m going to finish up here and then I’ll wake Chao-Ahn, so we can take off the splint.”

“When are you going to wake her up?”

“Well, there isn’t much left in the i.v. and I’m sure she’s going to come around quickly then. Oh, by the way, we’ve got only one i.v. bag left and we’ve nearly used up all the sedatives we got from the commandos.”

“You think that’s going to be a problem?” Buffy asked.

“A definitive yes on the i.v.s,” Willow answered. “They really made a difference with Anya and Merle. The sedatives might be handy in the future too, not only for medical stuff, but maybe when we met some unfriendly people; we could use them to knock someone out.”

“Great, more problems,” Buffy groaned.

“Merle, right? Dawn told us,” Willow said sympathetically.

Buffy hung her head. “Yeah; I thought it went really well and now I’m beginning to fear he might try to slay Spike and Anya.”

“I kinda doubt he would manage,” Willow chuckled.

“Right now nobody really noticed…”

“Dawn told Rona.”

“Oh, lovely. They will tell everyone else and soon enough people will be at each other’s throats. Robin will suddenly remember that Spike killed his mom, Giles will remember his duties as a watcher and Xander will be torn between defending his girlfriend and joining the “let’s kill the evil vampire” club. Everyone else will pick sides and soon we wouldn’t need zombies, we’ll manage to kill each other without their help.”

“You’ll really think that’s going to happen?!?”

“Well, that’s kind of the worst case scenario I can’t seem to get out of my head. And please, don’t tell me I should try mediation.”

“Maybe you should send Spike and Merle on patrol together,” Chao-Ahn suggested in a sleepy voice. She yawned and started to free herself from the blanket.

“No way; they might end up killing each other, if Merle wouldn’t downright refuse. Those two are pretty stubborn, plus they both have a talent for pissing people off,” Buffy pointed out.

Chao-Ahn got up and stretched.

“Then we need to find some alcohol and lock them in a room together. Once they are drunk enough, the male bonding thing will kick in; at least that’s what’s always happening in the movies.”

Both Willow and Buffy looked positively alarmed.

“You’ve never had to deal with a drunken vampire? Spike specifically?” Willow asked.

“Not to mention the hangover,” Buffy added. “But you know, this could actually work, I mean the patrol thing. I’m going to send Merle and Anya on patrol. She wouldn’t be intimidated by him and I somehow doubt he would really hurt her physically.”

“Did he also say something about witches?” Willow tentatively asked. “Dawn didn’t mention it, but she was pretty upset…”

Buffy shock her head. “No, I think he’s still trying to cope with demons.”

Willow had removed the bandages and rolled them up, while Chao-Ahn examined Sophia’s arm.

“It’s – how do you say? – as good as new,” she declared.

“Rona said you wanted her and Merle to be here when she wakes up, so I better get them,” Willow said.

 

They sat around the room, waiting. Rona was for once not right next to Merle. She kept her distance, occasionally glaring daggers in his direction. Chao-Ahn had removed the needle once the i.v. bag was empty. At first nothing happened, but after some time Sophia started to blink. Chao-Ahn moved to get up, but Buffy held her back. The girl sat up and looked around in confusion. When she noticed them, her expression turned fearful and her eyes darted around, looking for a way to escape. She scrambled off the table and backed into a corner. Then she seemed to realize that there was something different with her arm and she looked at it with a frown, before turning her attention back on the people in the room.

“Who are you?” Sophia asked, attempting to sound brave

Rona took a few steps in her direction, trying to be as unthreatening as possible.

“Hi, I’m Rona. Do you remember me? I climbed up your tree when we found you in the woods.”

“So, you’re real? I thought I was dreaming,” Sophia said hesitantly.

“Yes, I’m real, Sophia.”

“How do you know my name?”

“Merle told us; he remembered you from the quarry,” Rona said and gestured for Merle to get up.

Sophia’s eyes grew wide. “You’re not one of them? When I saw you, I thought you were one of them, because they said you were dead.” Her face brightened. “Daryl will be so happy.”

“So, my brother was still with you?” Merle asked eagerly.

“Oh yes. Daryl is keeping us save. He’s also the one who goes hunting for food and then my mom cooks it.”

Merle wanted to ask more questions, but Buffy intervened.

“Hi Sophia, I’m Buffy and these are my friends Willow, Chao-Ahn and Meredith. Can you tell us what happened since you left the quarry? Because we have been looking for your group since we found Merle.”

“They went back to Atlanta to get Merle, because Daryl was really upset. He even got into a fight with Sheriff Rick…” She paused and looked at her arm again. “What did you do with my arm? I broke it when a branch snapped and I fell off a tree. It hurt really bad and then it suddenly stopped hurting but was kind of funny. I mean, I could hardly do anything with it.”

“We gave you medicine to make you sleep and then Chao-Ahn fixed it,” Willow explained.

Sophia stared at her. “Your voice… did you tell me to be strong? No wait...”

“What happened after the fight?” Buffy asked quickly.

“Like I said, they went back, but couldn’t find him. That night the walkers came. They killed my dad.” Sophia got a far-away look, but then continued. “And they killed Amy, Andrea’s sister and other people. So, we had to leave, because it was not safe anymore. Jim got bitten and was really sick and we wanted to get to Atlanta, to the CDC, to see if they could help him, but he died before we got there. Mr. Morales and his family didn’t want to come with us; they wanted to go to Birmingham. I was sad, because Eliza was my friend and she gave me her doll, but I lost it in the woods. When we got to the CDC everything was locked and we thought there was no one there, but then a doctor let us in. His name was Dr. Jenner and we thought we were safe now. There was food and even showers. Dr. Jenner talked with the grown-ups, but I don’t know what he was telling them. Then we had to leave really fast, because there was some kind of self-destruct bomb and the doors wouldn’t open. Sheriff Rick blew them up with a grenade. We just got outside and the whole building blew up. After that, we just followed the highway. Shane was talking about going to Ford Benning. There were so many cars on the road that we couldn’t go on anymore and the RV broke down too. While they were trying to fix it we started to look around the cars, but then a herd came. We had to hide under the cars. I got out, because I thought they were gone, but there were still some left and they tried to get me, so I ran away into the woods. Sheriff Rick came after me. He lured them away and told me stay. I guess he was scared to shot them, because the noise would have brought the herd back.” Sophia took a deep breath. “I really tried to do what he told me, but there was another walker and it was coming after me. I got away, but then I couldn’t see the road anymore. When it got dark I climbed on a tree, because walkers can’t climb. I tried to find my way back, but I couldn’t.”

“How long have you been on your own?” Buffy asked.

Sophia shrugged. “Dunno, long, I guess.” Her face scrunched up and she looked like she was about to cry. “They probably don’t look for me anymore and think I’m dead. I want to go back to my mom!”

“Sh, everything will be all right,” Rona shushed her, embracing the girl somewhat awkwardly. “I bet they are still trying to find you. You know what? When we were on the highway, there was a message on a car for you, saying they were looking for you.”

“Really?” Sophia sniffled.

“Yeah, and I promise we’ll try to find your mom. I can’t promise we will, but we will try,” Buffy said. “You know, we’ve been actually looking for your group the whole time, because Merle wants to get back to his brother too. Did they have plans where they wanted to go?”

“Not really,” Sophia answered. “Shane wanted to go to Ford Benning, but I think no one else wanted to go.”

“How did you manage to stay alive all on your own?” Merle asked, causing Rona to glare at him over Sophia’s head. The girl let go of Rona and looked at him.

“When I was searching the cars on the highway, I found some chocolate bars. I had them still in my pocket, so I ate those at first. When I got out of the woods, there was a house with a cherry tree and later I found a town. I went into a house through the back door and there was food in the kitchen, but when I looked out of the window, there were lots of walkers on the street, so I just took some and left. I went back into the woods, because I could hide better. At night, I always climbed a tree and slept there, but then a branch snapped and I fell off and broke my arm. My mom had a broken arm once and she went to the hospital and got a cast, but there are no more hospitals. It really hurt and I tried to hide in the bushes, so the walkers wouldn’t find me.” She looked at Willow. “That’s when I had this dream. A woman asked me, if I was ready to be strong and I said yes, because I wanted to get back to my mom. After that, the arm stopped hurting, but it looked funny and was kinda limp. Later I found another house.” She frowned. “I think it was this house. I hid in the wardrobe and ate some canned peaches. They tasted real bad, but at least it was food. I went back into the woods, because I still thought I might find the road again. And then the walkers found me,” she whispered. “It was three of them and I was so scared. I just didn’t notice them at first and one of them grabbed me and I fell down. There was a stone and I just started smashing its head and there was so much blood and the smell… Somehow I managed to climb a tree with my useless arm, it was suddenly really easy and hoped the other two would go away, but they didn’t. I have no idea how long I was up there. And then you found me.”

Sophia’s eyes widened as she noticed the purplish bruises on Merle’s neck. “Oh my god, did I do that? I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t worry kid; it looks worse than it is”. He shrugged. “Guess we kinda blind-sided you.”

“Sophia, since you had that dream, with the voice, did you notice anything being …different?” Buffy cautiously asked.

The girl pondered the question.

“I’m not sure what you mean by different. There’s the arm, of course. It just took, maybe, a few days to get better. When my mom broke hers, it took much longer. Oh, and at first I couldn’t climb trees anymore because of it, but then it was suddenly really easy, even with one arm. And when I tried to get away from that walker…it wasn’t that hard. I mean, I always thought I would never have a chance once they got hold of me. When we were trying to get out of the city, I saw a man kill one with a shovel and he hit its head several times until it stopped moving. But maybe it was easier because mine was dead longer and the head was not so hard anymore.” She shuddered.

“Ok Sophia, what I’m going to tell you now does probably sound pretty crazy or like something from a bad movie, but you are special,” Buffy said slowly.

Sophia frowned.

“How am I supposed to be special? I’m not; my dad once called me “a waste of space”,” she said in confusion.

Buffy exchanged a look with Willow. She had written it off to shock that the girl seemed to be kind off indifferent when she mentioned her father’s death, but now Buffy was beginning to think that he hadn’t been exactly father of the year material.

“You are not a waste of space,” Buffy said firmly. “You are a very brave girl. And you are special, not matter what anyone says, but there are some girls who are …different.” Yikes, she was sounding like she was about to give the “birds and bees” talk! “These girls are called potentials, because they had the potential to get special powers.”

“Like in the comic books? “ Sophia asked. Her expression was dubious.

“Something like that,” Buffy confirmed. “For a long time, there was only one girl with these special powers, but now there are more of us. These girls are called slayers. They are stronger and faster than normal humans. When Willow asked you if you wanted to be strong in your dream and you said yes, you went from potential to slayer.”

“But I’m not special! Ok, once my teacher asked me to join the gymnastics team, but my dad said no…”

Nobody had been paying attention the Merle. He was getting feed up and decided to speed things up. Without anyone noticing, he slipped his knife out and threw it. It happened so fast, nobody had time to move when all of the sudden a knife was whizzing through the air, aiming for Sophia. Acting on pure instinct, she caught it by the handle mere inches before it reached her. She stared at it with wide eyes. Rona whirled around.

“Are you nuts!” she screamed.

Merle just shrugged.

“Look, she thought you were talking bullshit, so I thought I might show her. You said slayers had super fast reflexes.”

Buffy closed her eyes briefly.

“Merle, you are such an idiot!”

He just smirked.


	16. Chapter 16

Chao-Ahn had enough.

“Give her a break. She needs food and rest now. Rona, Meredith? See that she gets something to eat; I would recommend some porridge,” she said.

Sophia, who had been staring at the knife in her hand in wonder, looked up. She made a face at the mention of porridge, but was obviously too polite to say something. Rona noticed it.

“You know, I think Dawn has some chocolate syrup stashed away somewhere, for special occasions and I think this is one. Come on kiddo!” she said.

Sophia’s face lit up and she followed the two girls eagerly. Halfway out of the door, she remembered she was still holding the knife and dashed back, returning it to Merle with a shy smile.

“While you’re at it, see if you can find here some clean clothes,” Buffy suggested.

“Where is she going to sleep?” Rona asked. “You know, if we give her the grand tour we might as well figure it out beforehand.”

“I could share with Dawn again, “Willow offered.

“No, you just got your bed back. She can share with me if that’s ok,” Meredith suggested. “Now, let’s see if we can get Anya to whip up some porridge. And if you think porridge is totally yucky, “she said, ushering Sophia out of the room,” wait till you try Anya’s.”

As soon as the girls had left, Buffy rounded on Merle.

“We so need to have a talk, Mister! You. Porch. Now.”

She marched off, without looking back. Merle was suddenly reminded of being called to the headmaster’s office, so he thought it would be wise to follow without protest. Outside, Buffy turned and crossed her arms in front of her chest, her expression murderous.

“Now, what part of our very first conversation did you forget? You know, the one after we scrapped you sorry ass from the rooftop you were dying on.”

She was aware that this was kinda low, but the way he was acting recently, she had to remind him of a few facts.

“Ok, so first off: No throwing of knifes at people! I get what you were trying to do, but for the future? Ask me or Faith first. Capiche?”

Merle nodded, fighting the urge to stand at attention and shout “Yes, ma’am!”

“Now that we’ve cleared that up; remember the part about us being all equals? It doesn’t matter what some of us are or used to be, we’re a team now,” she continued.

“I get why you’re in a huff about Spike, since you’re screwing the guy…”

Buffy’s face turned white.

“How dare you!” she hissed. “You remember what I told you about the First? We wouldn’t have won without Spike! He was ready to sacrifice himself and it’s a wonder he made it! And Anya? If it wasn’t for Willow, she would have died in that fight! You think this,” she made a sweeping gesture with her hand,” this whole zombie thing, is bad? Trust me, if the First had won zombies, viruses and the complete breakdown of human civilization would be the least of your problems! And guess what? Spike helped save the world more than once before and back then he didn’t even have his soul!”

Now he felt like he was back at the headmaster’s office during his first year in high school, back when he still gave a fuck. Then something struck him.

“Wait, what about his soul? What are you talking about?”

The question caught her off guard. Right, he couldn’t know.

“Ok, I forgot. So here’s vampire 101,” she started to explain, calming down a bit. “Ok, so vampire attacks human, drinks blood. Now there are basically three different ways this could end. One, victim faints, feels like shit for a few days and doctors say he was attacked by wild animals. Two; vampire kills victim, which usually only happens if vampire is a complete moron or a fledgling, as in newbie vamp. In scenario number three, the vamp wants to turn the person into a vampire. Now, Hollywood covered the mechanics pretty well, with the exchange of blood, but you have to remember, a vamp normally doesn’t ask. So the victim dies and comes back as a vampire, but his soul is gone and a demon sets up shop in the body. They do keep their memories and sometimes their horrible fashion sense, but the person you knew is gone, instead you get a vicious, nasty creature. I’ve seen it and it’s like Jekyll and Hyde.”

“And what’s so different about Spike?” Merle asked impatiently.

“I’m not really sure, honestly. He was kinda odd from the beginning. Don’t get me wrong, he was evil and he tried to kill me so many times, I’ve lost count. But it was like there was still a part of his human personality left. I sometimes think something went wrong when he was turned, maybe because his sire, the vampire that did it, was crazy as hell. He once helped me save the world because he liked it the way it is. Later, he got himself tortured, trying to protect my sister. And then he went and got his soul back. Ok, he acted on a whim, not thinking about the consequences, but he must have known that getting it back would do a number on him. He went half way around the world anyway and fought for it.”

“Fought for it?”

Buffy looked at him like he was a complete idiot.

“What? It’s not like you go to the mall and get one; there’s this kind of demon you have to find and then he puts you through all kinds of tests…Ok, I knew another vampire who got his back by getting cursed with it as punishment, but that curse had side effects, mainly that the vampire in question had this habit off losing it from time to time.”

Merle was silent. Not for the first time he wished the world would just get back to normal. Things had been so much easier then. The walkers, he could deal with those on some level, but the other crazy stuff? Super-strong girls fighting demons, the fact that demons even existed in the first place…vampires, soul or no soul, he could have lived without knowing about that crazy shit.

“Oh, and Merle?”

He blinked. Buffy had a saccharine smile on her face.

“You’re up for patrol tonight,” she said. “With Anya.”

 

Sophia was shoveling porridge into her mouth like it was the last meal she would ever get, chocolate syrup dribbling down her chin.

“You better slow down,” Rona suggested. “If you get sick, they’ll don’t let you have dinner, maybe just more porridge and I think Anya’s making some veggie curry again. You don’t want to miss out on that.”

“I don’t care,” Sophia announced, her mouth full, but she did slow down a bit. She had a quick clean-up by the water pump and then they had looked through their clothes for something that might fit her. It had been difficult, since everyone else was taller. They finally found a pair of Capri pants Buffy had gotten back at the Sunnydale mall, knowing full well they were not exactly survival attire, but packed them anyway. They were still threatening to slide off the girl’s small frame, but had to do for now. Andrew had generously offered up another t-shirt, this one with a Spiderman print. It almost reached Sophia’s knees. Once she was cleaned up, Rona and Meredith had shown her around camp, while Anya prepared the food.

“You know,” Sophia said, swallowing her last bit of porridge,” you’ve got a lot of cars, I mean; you’re not that many people.”

“Oh, there’s more,” Meredith explained. “They’re out scouting, because, we kinda got lost. Again.”

“Uhm, maybe I kind of didn’t get it, but are you all slayers, like Buffy said? I mean, I think she said there was only one…” Sophia trailed off, looking at the older girls uncertainly.

Meredith proceeded to tell her about the battle on the Hellmouth and everything that happened before it. Sophia was very quiet after that.

“You know, I had this dream, nightmare,” she started haltingly. “It was in the beginning, when people started getting sick and there were news reports about people being attacked and bitten by other people. They said they were crazy from taking bad drugs on the news. We still had school back then, but it was kinda useless, because half of the students and teachers had called in sick. One night I dreamed about a huge cave with monsters and there were girls, fighting with those monsters. I was scared, but at the same time I had the feeling I should be there and fight too. My mom thought I was just upset from all the bad news on TV.”

Rona and Meredith exchanged worried looks. Rona got up.

“I better get Giles.” Turning to Sophia, she said:” No worries. Giles is Buffy’s watcher, but I guess he’s now everyone’s watcher. A watcher is responsible for training slayers, so I guess he’s the best person to answer all your questions.”

 

Buffy kept a close eye on the girls from her perch on the van. She saw Rona climbing up on the van where Giles was keeping watch and, after a quick exchange, Giles headed over to Meredith and Sophia. They were soon engrossed in conversation. The return of the first team distracted her. Caridad, Vi and Fiona had been nothing but thorough, they even brought back a few small map sketches and Buffy was struggling to mark things on their map. After that, she could only occasionally check back on Sophia, since more people got back and reported their findings. Buffy starred at the map. She was sure she had messed it up and hoped Robin would return soon, because he was so much better at this map reading thing. She had abandoned the van due to the sun. Any longer and her brain would have gotten fried. Glancing around, she saw Merle was still up on the bus. He looked pissed off and Buffy wondered if it was the prospect of patrolling with Anya or if he was just suffering from fried brain syndrome too. She hoped I was the latter. Hearing someone approach, she looked up, hoping it was Robin, but it was Giles. She threw up her hands in desperation.

“Ok, I think I royally screwed up!”

Giles looked at the map.

“Why? Everything appears to be in order.”

“You really think so?”

Instead of answering, Giles sat down.

“It’s rather fascinating. Sophia dreamed about the battle with the First,” he said.

“Wait, aren’t prophetic dreams a slayer thing? I mean, she was still a potential when that happened! You think that’s some kind of side effect from Willow’s spell?”

Giles shrugged. “I have no idea. Alas, there’s no way I could find out more, since my books all ended up in the Sunnydale crater. It’s certainly nothing I ever heard off. On a different note; I think Sophia is adjusting remarkably well. She’s asking to train with Rona and Meredith tomorrow.”

“Speaking of adjusting; why didn’t she have a watcher? I mean, Merrick told me every potential gets one. The other girls all seemed to have one, so what’s up with that? I kinda think the council would have been extra careful after what happened with me.”

“Oh, she had one,” Giles said grimly. “Did she mention the teacher?”

“The one who tried to get her on the gymnastics team?”

Giles nodded. “Lauren Miller. According to Sophia she also taught English and recommended some strange books to her and assigned weird extra credit work.”

“So the council was sneaky?”

“I met her once. She was more subtle than most watchers and handled things discretely if parents were… not cooperative. If that happened, most watchers usually informed the council to take care of the situation. Lauren was trying to avoid that.”

“And the council came to the rescue, guns blazing,” Buffy finished bitterly.

“Not all of them were like Travers or Gwendolyn Post,” Giles said with sigh. “We’ve lost some good people, people that could make a difference under current circumstances.”

Buffy wasn’t entirely convinced. But at least Sophia wasn’t completely unprepared.

 

By the time the sky turned red with a rather spectacular sunset, the last scouting team had returned. Camp was filled with the chatter of girls talking about their day, while they enjoyed Anya’s cooking. Buffy and the Scobbies, with the addition of Robin and Faith were huddled over the map, making plans. From the corner of her eyes Buffy saw Anya leave camp with a sword in her hand and a reluctant Merle in tow.

“I’ve talked with Chao-Ahn and we both think that medical supplies should be our first priority,” Willow pointed out. “We really need more i.v. bags, no matter if it’s ringer or saline solution or whatever.” She turned to Buffy. “If one of you gets hurt it just helps with the blood loss, but for someone like Giles or Robin it could make the difference between life and death. We should also start looking for inject able pain killers. There hadn’t been any at the military camp, since they might have used up their supply. We kinda didn’t think about that at the pharmacy, but we could use them. Same goes for sedatives. And a few medical textbooks might come in handy too. I mean, I don’t think we’ll have to deal with appendicitis or something like that, but you’ll never know.”

Buffy shifted uncomfortably at the thought of Chao-Ahn and Willow having to perform real surgery. But they were right, it could happen.

“Ok, so we have two options,” Robin said, smoothing out the map. “There’s Greenwood; bigger town and they do have a hospital.” He pointed at the little red cross on the map labeled Greenwood Memorial. “The other one is here; Granite Springs. It looks to be a small town, but there probably was a doctor and sometimes these country docs keep a lot of things around since the next hospital is far away.”

“We could always check the phone book,” Xander suggested. “I’ll get it.”

After a minute or two he returned from the van and started flipping pages. It took a while to find Granite Springs, but finally he got his answer.

“Dr. Walter Shaw, General Practitioner.”

Willow scribbled down the address at the bottom of her supply list.

“Maybe that’s the town Sophia mentioned,” she wondered.

Buffy chewed her lower lip.

“It looks like the hospital is further away.”

“Yeah, according to the map a few hours by car,” Robin confirmed. “Maybe we should check both places.”

“I don’t know,” Faith said, “but I keep thinking about what happened on the highway. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to continue to spread out this much. If there are possible human enemies around we should stick together.”

There were reluctant nods all around.

“So, small teams; Faith, Willow, Vi and myself get the hospital. We take the bikes, that’ll be faster. If we have too much stuff to take back, we can always pick up a car on the road. Chao-Ahn and maybe Caridad take the doctor’s office,” Robin offered.

“Better take Chao-Ahn,” Willow suggested. “If some of the stuff on our list is gone she has a better idea what to use as a fall back. I’ll take the doctor.”

“Ok, but I’d like you to go with Merle. You could take his car.” Buffy stated. Seeing the dubious faces, she quickly explained.

“He can handle the zombies, not that I think there might be a lot in a small town like that, plus, it’s not like Willow is totally helpless. Sophia is getting her first training session tomorrow and I think it wouldn’t hurt the others to brush up on their training too. Lately, there’s been a bit too much talk about how “lame” the zombies are for my taste. They may be not exactly challenging for a slayer, but they’re dangerous anyway.”

“Excellent idea,” Giles agreed.

“That’s also the reason why Spike has to stay. I don’t think Giles would volunteer as a punching bag for training again…”

“Not if it could be avoided.”

 

It got darker while they walked along the tree line. Merle kept a close eye on any strange movements in the woods, successfully ignoring his companion.

“Geez, how long do you want to go on pretending to patrol?” Anya finally broke the silence.

Merle stopped in his tracks and turned to face her. She had her hands on her hips and looked to be mildly irritated.

“Oh come on, don’t tell me you believed Buffy when she told us to watch out for zombies?”

Anya looked around and spotted a log, where she sat down.

“So, you want to know about my past; ask.”

She looked at him expectantly. Caught by surprise, Merle just stood there, frozen to the spot.

“You don’t know it, but we almost met once,” Anya said conversationally.

Merle made a noise that could be interpreted as “What?”

“Yes, it must have been sometime in the early 80’s…I think her name was Kylie Kowalski, waitress at a bar named the Blazing Talon or something. Do you remember her?”

Merle wracked his brain and then a light bulb went off. Kylie. He had almost thanked God on his knees for basic training and the opportunity to get away from that clingy bitch.

“I see you do. Well, she wasn’t happy after you left, she wanted vengeance. So I showed up and wasted a whole evening at this lousy bar. I had to drink beer with her and listen to her whining for ages and when I finally got her to make the wish; she passed out drunk before she finished it. It doesn’t count if they don’t finish, you know. In the end I was glad she didn’t, because, seriously, she was so annoying, no wonder you dumped her.”

Merle flopped down next to her, his knees suddenly going weak. Anya didn’t seem to notice.

“You see, that was my job, vengeance. I used to live in Europe, I think today it would be Sweden, sometime around 820…or was it 900? You tend to forget these things after a few hundred years. Anyway, back then I thought I had it all, the stone hearth, the furs, the cow and the nice boyfriend. He was a warrior named Olaf, a troll hunter. Turned out he wasn’t so nice and I found out he cheated on me with a barmaid. I was mad and wanted him to suffer, so first I cursed him with boils on his penis. But that wasn’t enough, so I turned him into a troll and he was chased out of the village. I wasn’t a witch, just dabbling, but those spells are pretty easy if you get the right books. Anyway, D’Hoffryn, he’s like the head supervisor for vengeance demons, showed up and offered me a job. I was known as Anyanka, The Patron Saint of The Woman Scorned. I was good, like real good. The Russian Revolution? That was me!”

She looked at Merle, obviously expecting some kind of reaction, but got none. He just starred.

“Then I came to Sunnydale because a girl in high school was pissed off about her ex,” she continued. “By the way, that guy was Xander. I granted her wish and it would have been one of my best works, but they caught me, destroying the amulet that was the source of my power and I was forced to become mortal. Can you imagine? For a thousand years I was a powerful demon, my name made mortals and demons tremble in fear and then I was suddenly in high school. I had to do homework. Harmony told me my hair was so last year. I even had to ask someone for prom, because I didn’t want to be a dateless looser. I ended up going with Xander, because, well, he didn’t want to be a dateless looser either. I didn’t want to, but I ended up dating him and fell in love and one day he asked to marry me. Life as a mortal suddenly wasn’t so bad. I was a successful business woman about to get married. Now I know I was moving too fast, but human lives are just ... blink and you’ll miss it, you know. I should have noticed that Xander was getting scared, ok; he could have told me about his fears. That’s always the problem, men not being able to talk about their feelings.” She sighed. “He left me at the altar. I was devastated and heartbroken. And angry. So when D’Hoffryn asked me if I wanted my old job back, I said yes and became a vengeance demon again. Bad idea. The fun was gone. I was still miserable and had all these stupid human emotions and my work sucked because of that. The other demons started calling me “Miss Soft Serve”. So I tried harder. In the end I tried too hard and went totally overboard. I didn’t enjoy vengeance anymore; it just made me feel guilty. Oh, and Buffy was trying to kill me. It got so bad, I asked for the wish to be reversed. I was ready to give up my own life just to make it stop. D’Hoffryn took the life of my best friend instead and made me mortal again, so I would never forget the pain. Turned out it wasn’t enough and the bastard tried to get me killed later anyway,” she huffed.

The haze in Merle’s brain cleared somewhat and he was able to ask.

“So you’re really not a demon anymore? You’re human now?”

“Yes,” Anya said brightly,” and I’m looking forward to get old and wrinkly with my Xander, if we don’t get eaten by zombies first. Who knows? If humans manage to get a functioning society up and running again during my lifetime, I might open a restaurant and earn money. I miss my money. Oh, and if your question was meant to ask if I was dangerous; no.” She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “You know, I shouldn’t talk about her like that, with her saving my life and all, but the most dangerous person around here is Willow.”

“Willow?” he repeated blankly.

Anya looked at him in surprise.

“Did no one tell you she’s a witch?”

“Maybe Buffy mentioned something about a spell…”

“Typical!”

Anya jumped to her feet and started to pace.

“It’s always look, there’s Anya, the ex-demon or Spike the vampire, who tried to kill us! But not Willow. She get’s the “Get out of Jail free” card! Just because she pulled off the slayer spell without getting black roots, they all think she’s ok. Well, I think Giles is still cautious…”

“What the hell are talking about?” Merle interrupted her rant.

Anya pivoted and looked at him.

“Don’t underestimate her. Willow is a witch and a very powerful one at that. I’m not going to be the one pointing fingers and give you a list of all the bad things she did. Ok, not everything was bad; Warren deserved it and much worse!”

“Wait a minute, what did she do? And who the fuck is Warren?”

Merle was sick of getting these little breadcrumbs and ominous warnings.

Anya’s face turned sad.

“You heard about Tara?”

“Yeah,” he answered, intrigued. “She was her girlfriend, right? Some psycho tried to shot Buffy and killed her by accident; Xander told me.”

“Then he left out some important parts of the story. That psycho was Warren. Willow and Tara had a big fight about…well, it doesn’t matter. They had just made up and were back together when Warren killed her right in front of Willow. Willow…to say she freaked out would be an understatement. She killed him by taking his skin off.”

 

The next morning he woke up to the sound of talking and people moving around. Merle sat up in his sleeping bag, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. Normally he was one of the first to be up, while the rest tried to sleep in as long as they got away with it. Xander especially had to be more or less dragged from his sleeping bag on most days. But today the camp was already bustling with activity. The laundry ropes were up and Spike was hanging up dripping shirts. Shannon, Fiona and a girl, he thought her name was Daisy, were over by the water pump, scrubbing away at more laundry in large buckets. Others were still eating breakfast. At first Merle thought he had slept longer than usual, but then he noticed the sun was still barley up. He grabbed his prosthesis and strapped it on, for now leaving off the bayonet, since that had a tendency to get in the way while eating. It wasn’t like anyone had been staring, but Merle felt more comfortable to cover up the scared mess of his stump. As soon as he had climbed out of his truck, Buffy waved him over. She was sitting with Willow, the map spread out in front of them. Merle made a detour to get some coffee, before joining them.

“Morning sleepyhead”, Buffy greeted cheerfully as he sat down. Apparently she had decided to not hold a grudge over some of the stuff he said yesterday. 

“What’s up? Are we moving camp?” he asked.

“Na, but since Sophia is getting her first training session today, I thought some training might be good for the other girls as well. They’re getting sloppy,” Buffy explained.

Merle doubted that any of them would ever fight “sloppy” by normal standards. He let his eyes wander, while sipping his coffee until he spotted Sophia over by the house. She had a crossbow in her hands. Rona and Giles were standing next to her, giving instructions, while Meredith lined up empty cans on the porch railing.

“So, we have to stock up on medical supplies,” Buffy began.

Merle turned back his attention to her.

“Robin, Chao-Ahn, Faith and Vi have already left for Greenwood,” she said, pointing out the city on the map. “There’s a hospital that might still have some. We also found a doctor’s office in Granite Springs, just a couple of miles away. I’d like you and Willow to check it out.”

Merle looked up sharply, wondering if Buffy was doing this on purpose. First she had him patrol with the demon girl – ex-demon girl- and as soon as Anya had filled him in about Willow he was supposed to go on a road trip with the witch. He was sensing a pattern here. Willow held up a notepad.

“I’ve got a list of things we should be looking for,” she said.

Buffy straightened up.

“I think you two can handle this. The town’s pretty small, so there’s a good chance it’s going to be deserted. Concentrate on the doctor place. If you come across anything else that might be interesting on your way, fell free to have a look or pick up other supplies, but don’t take unnecessary risks. And be back before it gets dark.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't you just love a long holiday weekend with lots of time for writing? I managed to finish another chapter. Warning, this is Willow/Merle centric. Exspect akwardness and some romance novel cliche (did I forget to mention zombies?), but no actual shipping. I'm still not sure what to do with those two, but the idea is getting kinda tempting... I'm still unsure, but if its going to happen, those readers uncomfortable with the ship can exspect a warning in the authors notes and I'll make sure to update the tags. In case you noticed, I do like to end on a cliffhanger, since then I can jump right into the action on the next chapter. Somehow, this makes writing easier...I'm beginning to wonder if TV writers are thinking the same way....Thanks again to anyone who's reading this. Happy Easter!

They drove along the empty country road in silence. The sun was up and while it was still morning, the temperature was steadily climbing, so Merle had both windows down. If it bothered Willow, she didn’t say anything. She kept checking back on the small map drawing she had made on her notepad and gave directions occasionally. Merle kept his eyes on the road, but couldn’t help sneaking glances when he thought she wouldn’t notice. He had a hard time getting his head around the things Anya had told him. He wasn’t really bothered by the fact that Willow had allegedly killed a guy, but his mind kept going back to the “skinned alive” part, wondering how she had done that. Merle figured that skinning a man would take quite some time, not to mention it was probably messy.

“Ok, there should be an intersection coming up. We need to go right,” Willow said. “Shouldn’t be far now.”

She put the notepad in her bag and started fiddling with the crossbow she had brought.

“You might want to stop that,” Merle suggested,” I’d like to avoid getting shot accidentally.”

Willow immediately stopped. Merle gave her another sidelong glance. She was one of the few people in their group he hadn’t had the chance to see in a fight and he was a bit concerned. If they ran into trouble, would she be able to deal with it? Buffy seemed to think so, but Merle wasn’t convinced. 

They drove past a sign “Welcome to Granite Springs, Population 1523” and soon the first houses came into view. Merle saw a small gas station coming up and slowed down.

“Let’s see if there’s gas left,” he suggested.

“Ok, I’m going to see if I can get a more detailed map,” Willow agreed.

When they got out of the car, Merle was somewhat relieved to see that Willow didn’t appear to be overly nervous. She kept an eye on their surroundings as she headed for the gas station and did the usual “knock and listen” before entering the building cautiously. He quickly inspected the gas pumps and was surprised to see that they were the old-fashioned hand pumps, no electricity required. Now all they needed were canisters. As he entered the building he found Willow over by the register, looking at a map with a frown. When she heard footsteps, her head snapped up and he found the crossbow aimed in his direction.

“Hey!”

“Oops, sorry,” she said sheepishly and lowered the weapon. “Reflex, I guess.”

Merle looked around. There was a magazine display next to the door and several shelves filled with dusty six packs of beer. Right across from the entrance he saw flashlights, batteries, towing ropes and other stuff. On the bottom shelve he found what he had been looking for; spare canisters.

“The doctor’s office is on Oak Terrace; that’s off the Main Street, across from the post office,” Willow said.

“Right, but let’s fill up these canisters first.”

 

They continued down the road after filling up the spare canisters and loading them on the pickup. Merle had cleaned out the cigarettes from behind the counter too, ignoring the disapproving look from Willow. The road eventually turned into the town’s Main Street. There was the occasional abandoned car and the windows on most shops were broken, making it clear that there wasn’t much left inside. They turned off the Main Street at the post office. Oak Terrace looked more peaceful, boarded up windows on some houses the only indicator that something had gone terribly wrong in this small town. The Shaw residence was easy to find due to the sign on the front lawn. Merle stopped the car and they got out. Like most houses, it was built in a Victorian style, with a porch all around the house. A large oak tree on the front lawn had a tree house and the bright flowers painted on it, clearly by children, made Willow’s stomach drop. Silently, they entered the house. In the hallway they found a door with a brass sign “Practice”. Inside was a small room, with a reception desk and few semi-comfortable looking chairs. The next room had a desk and some chairs, with framed diplomas decorating the walls. Without hesitation Willow started to open up drawers and cupboards. While Willow was busy scavenging medical supplies, Merle decided to check out the rest of the house. The kitchen had a few packs of instant soup and some canned goods he threw into his bag. When Willow emerged from the doctor’s office she had a satisfied look on her face and the two gym bags she had brought along were filled to the brim.

“Jackpot; I nearly got everything on the list,” she announced. “And you?”

Merle shrugged. “Bit of food, but there wasn’t much. Think we should check out the other houses?”

Willow contemplated, but then said: “I’m not sure. We’ve been lucky so far, but who knows what’s in there, especially in the ones that are boarded up. The shops on the Main Street look like they’ve been cleaned out already.”

They loaded the pickup and left, but once they reached the Main Street, Merle turned right.

“Hey, we’re supposed to turn left here!” Willow exclaimed.

“It’s still early, we’ve got everything we’ve been looking for and Buffy said nothing against a bit of exploration,” Merle smirked.

“If you think so…,” Willow said hesitantly.

 

They had already reached the outskirts of Granite Springs, when Merle suddenly stopped. His eyes zeroed in on a building with a neon sign by the road.

“Bar,” he explained upon Willow’s questioning look.

“Are you kidding me? Why are we stopping at a bar?”

“Booze,” Merle answered with a wide grin.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Willow protested.

“Why not? I bet the guys back at camp wouldn’t mind a drink now and then…”

“A world of no! Ok, Spike would probably love it, but I think Buffy will be less thrilled. You should have seen her when Faith took the girls to the Bronze and some of them got slightly drunk.”

“The Bronze?”

“A club in Sunnydale; ok, more like the only club,” Willow explained. “We used to hang out there a lot, especially back in high school. Back then my boyfriend was in a band that played at the Bronze pretty often.”

“Boyfriend?” Merle sputtered.

“The Dingoes Ate My Baby,” Willow continued, oblivious to his reaction. “Oz was the guitarist. We met in high school, but he left during our first year in college. He was a werewolf, you know, and he was trying to learn to control it.” She paused. “I wonder where he ended up; I hope he’s ok.” She looked at him. “Ok, get your booze, but if the girls get their hands on it, it’s not my fault!”

Grabbing his bag, Merle got out of the car and looked around. Get a grip, he told himself, but the words “boyfriend” and “werewolf” had taken up residence in his head. Demons, vampires, witches and now werewolves. What next? Godzilla? Frankenstein? He wondered if somebody would soon casually mention they’ve met Dracula. Thankfully, just like the whole town, the bar was deserted. He quickly dumped a few bottles of whisky into his bag and, spotting wine bottles, added a few of those too. Willow, who had been waiting in the car nervously, was relieved when he returned.

“Can we go now?” she asked impatiently. Merle nodded and soon they drove past the sign telling them “You are now leaving Granite Springs Have a pleasant journey!”

 

There had been no more towns or even buildings once they were on the road again and around midday Willow had called for a stop, getting out the map from the gas station. The heat and humidity was getting to her and she downed half a bottle of water, before passing it on to Merle without looking up.

“Ok, we need to turn around and then left at the intersection. See? That road is almost parallel to the highway and leads back to the one we took in the morning,” she said.

Merle finished the water and tossed the empty bottle behind the driver’s seat, before putting the car in reverse. Willow leaned back in her seat, staring at the landscape outside the open window. It changed from open fields to forest. Willow was close to dozing off, when she noticed something white peeking out between the trees in the distance. She sat up straighter and squinted out of the window. The road made a turn and a large white house up on a hill came into view.

“Wow, it’s huge! Let’s go up there and have a closer look,” she suggested.

Merle craned his head to get a better view.

“Not, bad,” he agreed. “It’s elevated and not so close to the woods like the other one, maybe we could move here next.”

“Yeah, we might even turn this into permanent headquarters,” Willow said. “Not like we’re going to stop searching for them, but we could maybe, come back later…” she quickly added.

They turned into the driveway. A cluster of trees was about halfway up to the house and a few tents were pitched there.

“You think there’s someone already living here?” Willow wondered.

“Don’t think so, because then we would be already dogging bullets,” Merle answered distractedly, his eyes fixed on the house.

There were scorch marks on the white walls and, from what they could see, the windows on the ground floor were missing. Part of the roof extending over the front porch had collapsed. Merle parked in front of the house. The first thing greeting them as they left the car was a swarm of buzzing black flies rising from a spot on the overgrown lawn. Willow cautiously moved closer and what she found made her almost jump back. It was a severed head, or better skull as there was hardly any tissue left. Where the eyes used to be was a squirming mass of maggots. A few strands of long blonde hair suggested that it had once belonged to a woman. Willow backed away slowly, keeping her eyes on the ground in case there were more body parts scattered around. Merle was kneeling next to another body, swatting away flies and covering his nose with his arm to ward of the stench. This one had clearly been a walker. A bullet had removed part of the skull, maggots covering what had been left of it. The rest of the body was more or less bones and rags. Silently they made their way across the lawn and up the stone steps to the porch. There were more bodies underneath the collapsed roof, but it was impossible to tell if they had been human or zombie, since they had been reduced to black skeletons by the fire. Broken glass crunched underneath their boots as they entered the house. What had been left of Willow’s enthusiasm evaporated as she saw the damage inside. While the outer walls were still intact, the inside of the house was destroyed by the fire, leaving only piles of ash and rubble. Miraculously some furniture had survived, like a huge table, which was scorched, but otherwise undamaged. Most of the walls had collapsed or burnt down, but you could still make out the layout of the house. Willow looked up. The first floor had caved in almost completely, with a few pieces still stuck on the outer walls, like ledges. The left side in the back of the building had the worst damage; there was even a bit of sky visible through the roof.

“Ok, there’s no way Xander could fix this,” Willow commented, disappointment evident in her voice.

They went outside and around to the back of the house. A dirt road lead from the main house down to another building, probably a barn, but this one had been completely destroyed by fire. At a distance from the barn the remains of a larger vehicle stood. The area was littered with fallen bodies in various states of decay, some of them burned.

“I guess they got overrun and someone set fire to the barn as a distraction and then some burning walkers spread the fire,” Merle said, looking around.

Willow nodded. “Yeah, they can get surprisingly far while on fire.”

Suddenly Merle went very still and his eyes narrowed. He went over to one of the bodies and kneeled down next to it, pulling something from the head. He held it up for Willow to see. It was an arrow.

“This looks like one of Daryl’s!” he called excitedly.

“How can you be so sure? It’s not like your brother’s the only one with a crossbow.”

“Maybe, but he’s the only one who would get them straight in the eye!” Merle said smugly, pointing to a burned corpse nearby, another arrow sticking from its eye socket. “And that wreck over there? It’s an RV and they did have one at the quarry.”

Willow still wasn’t convinced.

“Maybe we should search the tents? See if we find anything you’ll recognize?” she suggested.

Merle retrieved the second arrow and they returned to the house. He was still looking at them, wondering if Daryl was around here somewhere, when Willow grabbed his arm to stop him. He looked up.

“Fuck!” he hissed under his breath.

Walkers. A large group, spread out across the whole area in front of the house, cutting off the way to their car. They hastily took cover behind the corner of the house. Merle cursed inwardly. Where the fuck did they come from? He should have paid more attention.

“Guess they heard the car and followed the noise,” Willow whispered as if she had read his thoughts.

He peered around the corner, contemplating making a run for the pickup, but dropped the idea immediately. They wouldn’t stand a chance. Willow raised her crossbow, looking determined, but Merle put his hand on the weapon.

“Too many.”

They’re only chance was to hide and hope the walkers would leave eventually. There wasn’t much of a choice; they had to get back inside the house.

“The window,” he whispered. “You first.”

Willow nodded and handed him the crossbow while she slipped through the nearest window. Of course it had to be one of the few which had still pieces of glass left. Merle passed her the crossbow and climbed through, but his bayonet got caught on the glass and a large shard came loose. He didn’t get hurt, but when it hit the ground it shattered, the sound being the equivalent of a gunshot. They froze. Merle’s eyes went up to the remnants of the ceiling, remembering how Sophia had hid in the tree.

“We have to get up!”

Not waiting for an answer, he lifted Willow, so she could hold on to the ledge and pull herself up. Using a wooden beam sticking out of the wall as a step, he tried to haul himself up, but since he only had one hand to hold on to the ledge, he couldn’t. For a second he was dangling in mid-air and expected a walker to grab his legs any moment, but Willow leaned over and pulled him up with all of her strength. There was not enough room for two people and she ended up lying on top of him, her arms trapped between their bodies. As the dust settled, they tried to get their breathing back to normal, anxiously listening. Sure enough, the familiar shuffling and groaning could be heard as walkers entered. Merle concentrated, but there was no way to tell how many there were without looking. Willow raised her head and stared at him with wide eyes, her face scrunching up. Fuck, Merle thought, she’s not going to lose it and start crying or shit like that? Suddenly, she buried her face in his neck and sneezed, the sound muffled again his skin. She was looking horrified when she raised her head again, mouthing a silent “Sorry”. Merle couldn’t help but grin. Willow started wriggling around until she had freed her arms and started to wipe his neck with the sleeve of her shirt, her face turning slightly pink from embarrassment. Merle let his head fall back and relaxed. He was not dead yet, had a pretty redhead draped all over him; all in all live wasn’t too bad.

 

Willow was mortified. Not only was she squishing the poor guy, no, she had to sneeze all over him. Way to go! As she continued dabbing at his neck, she noticed his grin. He was making fun of her. She could feel the heat rise in her face and glared at him. Willow tried to move, so she would no longer be on top of him, but there wasn’t enough room. The crossbow, which she had pushed up against the wall, was already digging in her hip uncomfortably and she wasn’t sure how stable they’re hideout was. She gave up and tried to get comfortable, ending up with her hands on Merle’s chest and her head on top. In her mind, Willow was already making calculations. If the zombies decided to hang around, they would be in trouble soon, since her bag with the water bottles and the food was outside in the car. She tried to remember how long a human could survive without water. Three days? Four? Temperatures were pretty high during the day, so maybe just two? She felt Merle’s steady heartbeat underneath her hand. In a way, it was comforting, with their breathing the only sound. Her head snapped up and she listened intently. The zombie sounds had stopped. Cautiously, she moved and peered over the edge. There was only one zombie visible, standing over by the table. He was almost skeletal, with a few wisps of white hair on his skull and dressed in blue coveralls. He wasn’t moving at all, providing an excellent target. She retreated and moved her head until her mouth was as close as possible to Merle’s ear.

“I can see only one; looks like the others left,” she whispered.

“Better take him down before he calls back his buddies,” he whispered back.

Willow looked at him in surprise, but didn’t comment. She felt around for the crossbow and maneuvered into position. Determined to get the zombie on the first try, she ended up with her upper body hanging off the ledge. At one point Merle had grabbed the waistband of her jeans to keep her from falling off. Her arms burned and her stomach muscles got one hell of a workout as she took aim. The bolt got the zombie straight in the head. She scrambled backwards.

“So, you too think they have some form of communication?” she whispered.

Merle shrugged. “They seem to get louder when they spot someone and that seems to attract more. You got him?”

“Straight in the head,” Willow confirmed,” but I’m not entirely sure he was the only one.”

Merle slightly lifted his body and dug around underneath. His hand reappeared holding a piece of plaster, which he dropped into the room below. They listened, but there was just silence. Willow sat up and stretched to get a look out of the window above her.

“Still there, but I think there’s less,” she whispered, still afraid to draw the zombie’s attention.

Merle got up to a sitting position; their noses almost touching and looked out of the window too.

“Not too bad,” he commented. “If we run, we could make it to the car.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, but if you’d like to stay, I wouldn’t mind, “he said with a leer, looking down pointedly.

Willow followed his gaze, momentarily confused, but then the penny dropped and her face started to heat up. Guy. Guy parts. Friction. She was straddling him and with all the moving around it was like she was performing a lap dance! She moved to jump off the ledge, but Merle held her back.

“I’ll go first.”

They disentangled, which was way awkward and he dropped down to the floor with minimal noise. Willow grabbed the crossbow and followed. She nearly lost her balance when she landed, but Merle caught her. He crept towards the front door, careful to stay out of sight. Observing the zombies still milling around in front of the house, he waited for an opening.

“Let’s go,” he said, grabbing her hand and sprinting towards the car.

They zigzagged across the lawn as the zombies started to move in on them. One got pretty close, but Merle stabbed its head with his knife arm. Dodging more of them, they reached the pickup. Willow got in, but just as she was about to close the door, a zombie got hold of it. There wasn’t much left of its face and it snapped its exposed teeth at her. She tried to kick it away. Her boot ripped through the business suit it was wearing and sank into its stomach, its decomposing body providing no resistance. Willow struggled to free her leg, while Merle started the car, and kicked it again. This time she hit the ribcage and the zombie lost its grip. She slammed the door and they speed off, the car lurching as Merle plowed through the undead. 

 

Willow was relieved as the farm of the living dead disappeared from the rearview mirror.

“You ok?” Merle asked, not taking his eyes of the road. “Did you get scratched?”

“No, I only have stinky zombie intestines stuck on my boot,” she answered.

Merle seemed to relax a bit.

“I don’t get it. Everyone keeps telling me that you’re this kinda badass witch, so why didn’t you do anything? Like twitch your nose or wave your wand or whatever the fuck you witches do and make those walkers disappear?” he asked after a while.

“There’s no wand weaving or nose twitching involved,” Willow said curtly, hoping he would drop the subject.

“Whatever; but you could have gotten rid of them, right? So, why?” he pressed.

“I was scared, ok! I could have made them disappear, go up in flames, turned them into fluffy bunnies… but I was scared that I’d lose control again! Happy now?” she almost shouted and slumped back in her seat.

Merle seemed to be startled by her outburst.

“Magic,” she began haltingly,” it’s like the ultimate power trip.” How was she supposed to explain this to a man who had known nothing about this kind of stuff until yesterday? “Back in Sunnydale I reached a point when I turned to magic for every little thing. It was like a rush; I just couldn’t stop and lost control. Giles had to take me to England for magic rehab.” She smiled weakly. “Then I had to go back because of the First. I started using magic again, small stuff and I thought I was doing ok, but then came the slayer activation spell. It scared the hell out of me, but I did it. It was different from any spell I had done before, but afterwards I was so out of it…I don’t even remember the healing spell I did on Anya.” She looked at Merle. “I can’t let this happen again.”

“Ok, so you’re a magic junkie,” Merle calmly stated.

She should be offended by his bluntness. Her friends had come up with all kinds of delicate ways to address the issue, but in the end, it was the harsh truth.

“Hi, my name is Willow and I’m a magic addict,” she joked lamely.

He grinned.

“Hi Willow. I’m Merle and magic is about the only thing I’ve never been addicted to.”

They spent the rest of their trip in comfortable silence.

 

They were back at camp in the early evening. Apparently Team hospital was already back, because an ambulance was parked next to the van Shannon was sitting on.

“Welcome home,” she greeted them as they got out of the car. “We were starting to get a little worried.”

“We decided to do some sightseeing,” Merle said casually and then frowned.

The doors on the ambulance were open and he could see it was filled with boxes. He looked around. Knowing how things worked around here, he expected to see people busy unloading, but the camp seemed to be deserted. Shannon noticed his confusion.

“In case you’re wondering; Sophia is sparring with Spike and everyone’s watching. Of course I had to be stuck on watch and will miss it,” she pouted.

A sick feeling in his stomach, Merle jogged towards the crowd in front of the house, Willow following close behind. The feeling intensified as he took in the scene. Everyone had gathered in a circle and in the center were Sophia and… a monster. Part of him identified Spike from his hair and clothes, but his face had changed. His eyes had turned yellow and his face had shifted sporting strange ridges and long fangs. Merle tried to elbow his way through the crowed, but someone snatched his arm and held him back.

“Don’t worry, she’s doing just fine,” Rona said, not loosening up her hold.

Merle struggled to free himself. How could they all just stand there and watch while this monster tried to kill the girl? Buffy, Giles and Faith stood right across from him, watching calmly and didn’t show any intention to intervene. Spike threw a punch, which Sophia dodged. They circled each other and Sophia attempted a roundhouse kick, which Spike evaded. He rolled, coming up behind her and, moving with inhuman speed, grabbed her from behind.

“My my, I thing I’ve got myself a snack-sized slayer,” he said and lowered his head to Sophia’s neck. She went limp.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it took a while. I seriously admire all the authors who not only work full time jobs, but have families and still manage to update regularly. The next chapter will probably take a while too, since I'm away at a conference next week and also suffer from a bit of writer's block at the moment.

Merle tried to get away, but Rona had his arm in a death grip. Unable to do anything, he had to watch while the monster was about to rip out Sophia’s throat. All of the sudden the girl straightened up and head butted Spike straight in the face. With a snarl he let go off her, clutching his nose. 

“Bloody hell!”

The vampire whirled around, facing Giles, with blood dripping down his face.

“Do you have this on the first page of the handbook? Something like, go ahead, break the poor vamp’s nose?” he accused.

“No,” Giles answered, with an air of superiority. “It’s in the footnotes at the end of the first chapter.”

“Come one,” Dawn scolded, handing Spike a towel, “stop being such a baby.”

“Oh god, I’m sorry!” Sophia tentatively stepped forward. “I didn’t mean to, I just…”

“It’s ok,” Spike said, pressing the towel to his face. “You did great; bonus points for acting, but you might want to skip the apology and go right for the staking in a real fight.”

Sophia nodded, her face serious, but then frowned.

“Wait, there’s a handbook?”

“Yeah, the slayer’s handbook,” Faith answered. “Don’t bother; neither B. nor I read it.”

“And I’ve come to regret that on countless occasions…” Giles muttered under his breath.

Rona had released her grip and joined the crowd of girls surrounding Sophia, congratulating her on her victory. Merle absentmindedly rubbed his arm, sure that there was a bruise already forming, but kept his eyes on Spike. By now, he was almost back to normal, yellow eyes the only trace left of the monster.

“That’s what a vampire really looks like.”

He hadn’t noticed Willow standing next to him.

“Their human face is like a mask, but when they’re fighting, or in pain or get really emotional, the mask slips,” she went on. “We’re calling it the “Game Face”; Dawn’s nicknamed it “going Grr”.”

Merle kept watching as Buffy checked on Spike, wondering if the guy looked like that when those two were…no, he wasn’t even going to think about that.

“Uhm,” Andrew waved his arms, trying to get everyone’s attention. “I’d just like to mention that we’ve found a couple of cookie sheets in the kitchen and since there’s olives and pepperoni among the stuff you brought from Greenwood and Anya’s got this recipe she’s been wanting to try out for ages…pizza, anyone?”

All conversation stopped and when the girls started to move towards him with predatory expressions, he took an involuntary step back. Faith stepped in.

“Ok, so first, fucking yes to pizza, and you,” she turned to the junior slayers, “stop scaring Andrew. If I remember correctly, there’s a whole lot of supplies waiting to be unloaded before you can even start to think about pizza!”

The girls scattered and Faith turned to Willow.

“How’s your trip been going?”

Willow shrugged.

“Not too bad, I guess. We had to hide for a bit from zombies, but got away. There wasn’t much food-wise, but I’ve got two bags full of med stuff from the doctor’s office and we found a gas station and managed to fill up some spare canisters. Oh, and we’ve got alcohol,” she added as an afterthought.

“Willow! Taking a walk on the wild side, you bad girl?” Faith grinned.

Willow pointed at Merle.

“It was totally his idea!”

“What did you get?” Faith asked him.

“Couple of bottles of whiskey and some red wine,” he answered. Merle looked at the two women. “Isn’t red wine supposed to go with pizza?” he asked innocently.

Faith’s grin widened. “Totally.”

 

Buffy had initially protested when Merle brought out the wine, but Faith had argued that once it was divided equally, it was not much more than a teaspoon each, so she had given in. The wine had been poured into their coffee mugs and Giles had kept close watch over who took one, swiftly removing the mugs from Meredith and Sophia as they picked them up. As Buffy got up to get another slice of pizza, she saw Rona and Caridad inconspicuously passing their mugs to the younger girls, but decided to let it slip. Like Faith had said, it wasn’t enough to get anyone drunk. Buffy took a bite from the pizza. It was slightly burned around the edges and Anya’s vegan cheese substitute didn’t taste remotely cheese-like, but was good none the less. She strongly suspected the addition of pineapple to the toppings had been her sister’s idea. Buffy saw Faith sitting together with Anya, Xander and Andrew. Faith was chewing her pizza, not paying attention to the conversations around her, and had her eyes fixed on Robin. When she was done eating, she carried her plate to the pile of dirty dishes and paused, but then raised her head like she had made up her mind and went over to where Robin was sitting all by his own. Looks like someone’s finally ready for the “grown-up relationship talk”, Buffy thought. She wandered over to Willow and Merle and sat down.

“I heard you ran into some trouble?” she asked.

Merle waved his hand dismissively. “Just got surprised by some walkers and had to wait till we could make a run for the car.”

“We did some exploring on the way back and found a farm. Merle is pretty sure his old group stayed there,” Willow said. “There must have been a battle of epic proportions; there were bodies all over the place, but no one Merle recognized.”

“Yeah, and a burned out RV; looked just like the one this old guy from the quarry had,” Merle added, “but no other cars.”

“So, you think they got away?” Buffy asked.

“Damn sure they got,” Merle said without hesitation. “They must have stayed there for a while, had tents pitched and all, but we didn’t get a chance to check them out.”

“How far away is that farm?”

“Maybe halfway to Granite Springs,” Willow answered, looking at Merle for confirmation. He nodded.

“So we’re still on the right track,” Buffy stated.

She looked around. It had gotten late and most people had disappeared towards bed, with the exception of Fiona and Daisy, who were on kitchen duty. Noticing the girls were nearly done with the dishes, Buffy gathered the plates and got up.

“We’ll talk strategy after breakfast tomorrow.”

After dropping of the dishes with the kitchen crew, Buffy decided to do a little sweep on her own before heading to bed. She wondered if Spike had decided to do the same, since he was nowhere to be seen. The light of the campfire didn’t extend past the circle of cars, so once Buffy stepped past a van, she was surrounded by darkness.

“Hello cutie.”

Spike spun her around, pressed her up to the side of the van and kissed her senseless.

“How’s the nose?” Buffy managed to ask, once she had a chance to catch her breath.

“Never been better,” Spike murmured as his mouth descended on her again.

Someone above them coughed and they looked up. Giles looked down on them from the top of the van in mild disapproval.

“I think the phrase Dawn would use right now is “Get a room!”.

Buffy and Spike looked at each other and burst into laughter. Spike took her hand and they ran towards the house. Somehow they made it to the kitchen, where Spike lifted her up on the counter.

“Now, where were we?” he murmured, kissing along her neck.

 

Buffy was trying to remove his shirt, which wasn’t easy since he refused to separate his mouth from hers long enough, when they heard the noise. They paused and listened.

“I swear, if that’s a zombie, I’m going to rip it into tiny little pieces,” Spike groaned.

He smoothed down his shirt, while Buffy hopped of the counter. They slipped into the hallway. From the living room they could see a tiny flicker of light. Two small candles were burning on an old plate on the floor and on the couch they found Faith, straddling Robin’s lap, the two of them kissing like there was no tomorrow. She seemed to have noticed their presence, since she briefly raised her hand and flipped them off without looking up. Buffy and Spike retreated to the hallway.

“What now?” Spike whispered.

Buffy paused, thinking.

“Upstairs,” she answered, grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the stairs.

 

Buffy crawled out of her sleeping bag and stretched. Spike had been due for watch at midnight, so they reluctantly had left the surprisingly comfortable mattress they had ended up on in an upstairs room. Sneaking out of the house, they had made sure to stay as far away from the living room as possible. The sun was just starting to rise, as Buffy brushed her teeth and washed up by the water pump. Faith hadn’t come back all night. Being the first one up, Buffy figured she could make herself useful. As she was tending to the campfire, Robin came down from the house, trying hard to look like he was just coming back from a little morning stroll. Faith showed up about five minutes later, getting her toothbrush and stuff from the van and headed for the water pump, but then stopped next to Buffy.

“Good morning; had a good night’s sleep?” Buffy asked innocently.

“Five by five…B., can I ask you something?”

Buffy raised her eyebrows.

“You see, the thing is…god, I can’t believe I would ever say this, but Robin, he kinda asked me to move in,” Faith blurted.

“Oh, so you two got to the actual talking part last night?” Buffy paused, an uneasy expression on her face. “Wait a minute, if you want to move in with Robin that would mean I’d have to sleep with Giles! I mean, not sleep with as in sleep with, but…”

“That’s not what I wanted to ask,” Faith chuckled at Buffy’s horrified face. “Of course, if you want to sleep with Giles…”

“Uhm, I think Spike would have some objections to that,” Buffy said, trying to shake the disturbing mental picture.

“Right, so that’s why you have to help me to persuade Giles to share with Andrew, so you could shack up with Spike and I get to move with Robin,” Faith explained her plan. “Now, if you are not ready to cuddle up with Spike on a daily basis…”

“And miss this important moment in human history: Faith, getting domestic, ready to share a van with a guy? No way!” Buffy laughed. “Let’s see; best to wait until Giles had his morning tea, or better yet, we’ll talk to him after the meeting.”

 

After breakfast the adults in the group gathered around their collection of maps. Buffy had made sure to prepare extra coffee for the meeting. Merle sat down next to Willow, passing her one of the two mugs he was balancing, as Buffy summed up what they had found on the farm the other day.

“So, we’re heading in the right direction. We’ve got enough supplies for now, but I think it would be a good idea to hit Granite Springs again and get more gas.”

“And you’re sure the people at the farm had been the group we’re looking for?” Giles asked.

“Damn sure,” Merle said, holding up the two arrows he had picked up,” those are like my brother’s signature and I’m sure it’s the same RV; some of the tents looked familiar too.”

Robin looked at the largest map.

“Ok, we know that they had to leave in a hurry, but I somehow doubt they headed back towards Atlanta. The chance to run into a big herd would be too high and you’ve all seen the highway, no one in their right mind would try to get past all these cars again,” he speculated.

“What if they no longer travel by car?” Xander pointed out.

Willow shook her head. “There have been no cars at the farm and seriously, would you just try to run with hordes of zombies chasing after you?”

“Probably not,” he admitted.

“I bet they’re on the highway again or at least tried to stick to it, since that helps with knowing where you are,” Faith said. “I’d suggest we do the same. Granite Springs first, then along the highway. We could try to cover a larger area by moving in some kind of search pattern. It’s not like they could pack up their stuff when they had to get off the farm, so they’re probably running low and have to resupply, which should slow them down. If we cover the places they’re likely to hit up scavenging, I’m sure we’ll catch up with them.” 

“Or not; I mean, that’s needle and haystack all over again; it could take forever to find them, if we find them at all. Maybe Wills could work her mojo and speed things up?” Xander suggested.

Willow visibly tensed, but before she had a chance to answer, Merle spoke up.

“I sure I ‘aint need no fucking hocus-pocus to track my brother!”

“Yeah, maybe, but don’t you think we should get Sophia back to her mom as fast as possible?” Xander persisted.

“I come to think that wouldn’t be wise,” Giles said. “Sophia is no longer the little girl they knew. Not only does she need more time to get used to the changes, there are other factors we need to consider. It would be impossible for her to keep her slayer status secret forever, especially from her mother. We don’t know what her mother’s reaction would be, not to mention the rest of the group. What would happen if they felt she was a threat?”

“Well, we’ve seen how they handle a perceived threat to their safety; chain it to the roof,” Willow snorted.

“What if her mother already got killed?” Anya asked.

Everyone paused. It was a possibility they all had avoided to think about.

Robin straightened up. “Then she’s going to stay with us.”

“If they go for that; might as well insist they keep her,” Merle pointed out.

“Even worse, once they realize what she’s capable off, they might want to use her as some kind of one girl army,” Spike slowly added.

Buffy turned to Merle. “You think they would do that?”

He shrugged. “Not sure, but there’s a least one guy who might get that idea.”

Faith’s face turned grim. “They should go ahead and try to keep her against her will. I would be ready to break some bones, no matter how many fucking guns they have!”

“Let’s hope it won’t come down to that,” Giles said.

“Ok, everyone done thinking the worst?” Buffy asked. “So, we agree on doing what we’ve been doing. Next stop tomorrow will be Granite Springs and we should consider preparing Sophia for the kind of decisions she might have to make once we find her old group.” She looked around. Everyone seemed to agree.

“I’ll tell everyone to get ready to move out tomorrow,” Robin said, getting up.

Giles started to get up as well, but Buffy held him back.

“Uhm, there’s something Faith and I want to discuss with you; you too, Andrew.”

As everyone else left, Willow quickly turned to Merle.

“Thank you, I guess, you know, when Xander suggested to…” she said quietly.

“No problem, Red; like I said, I got no problem tracking them down the old-fashioned way,” Merle interrupted her.

“Still, thank you.”

He just nodded and headed over to join Rona and Shannon, who were getting ready to start gathering fire wood. Willow found herself staring after him. Snapping out off it, she hurried over to help Dawn and Anya going over their inventory. They were soon joined by Andrew. Anya and Dawn tried to find out what Buffy had wanted to talk about with him and Giles, but he just grinned and said they would soon find out.

 

Willow frowned and started to count the canned tomatoes again. Next to her, Dawn peered inside the rice bin.

“That’ll seem to last for another few weeks, don’t you think?” she asked.

Distractedly, Willow checked. “Yeah, I think so. But we’ll have to look for oats again soon; oatmeal’s like the go-to breakfast and they haven’t brought back any from Greenwood.”

Dawn added it to her list. “Should be easy enough to find, but there’s hardly any of the dried soya “meat” left and I haven’t seen a health food store since Atlanta.”

“It’s not like anyone’s starving,” Willow pointed out.

“Yeah, but seeing how fast food seems to disappear around here… I don’t have high hopes for Granite Springs, since you said the stores looked pretty done, but maybe Sophia can pick up some clothes. I don’t think hers will survive another laundry day,” Dawn continued and turned to the pasta.

Willow finally finished on the tomatoes and corrected the number on her list. Anya squeezed past her, trying to get to the box where they kept their ever-growing collection of spices. Willow attempted to turn around, so she could get to the next item on her list, canned fruit, only to bump into Andrew, bent over the coffee supply.

“There’s just not enough room in here for four people.” Willow put down her clipboard. “I better go and help Chao-Ahn sort through the medical stuff instead.”

Merle’s head appeared in the door.

“Hey, China Girl wants to know if you can make room for the med stuff in here.” he asked.

Dawn looked at him. “Didn’t we agree to put that in the ambulance?” she asked back, her voice full of irritation.

“Dunno what you agreed on, but that ambulance is going nowhere. It’s a miracle you could drive it all the way back without breaking down; the rear axle is fucked up.”

“Just great!” Dawn sighed and looked at the pile of cans and boxes outside, still waiting to be inventoried and loaded.

“Well if you ask me, just get rid of all the shit you’re lugging around on the bus, I mean you’ve got more make-up and girly stuff in there than a fucking drugstore,” Merle said.

The death glares he got for that statement made him back off slightly.

“We could remove Xander’s toolbox from our car and load some of the stuff there,” Anya suggested.

“And where should we pack the toolbox?” Willow asked.

“I could keep it on the pickup,” Merle offered.

“Ok,” Dawn said resolutely. “We load the medical supplies on Anya’s and Xander’s van, the toolbox gets moved to Merle and then we only have to get the rest of the food in here. Oh, and Merle? Don’t listen to Xander when he’s starting to whine his precious toolbox might get damaged on your pickup; you could probably fire a rocket launcher at that thing and it wouldn’t leave a scratch! See? Packing crisis averted!”

Dawn returned her attention to her lists and Merle left in search for Xander. Willow’s gaze followed him. The guy was a walking contradiction. One moment he could act like a total jerk and the next minute he could be almost nice. She had expected him to make some crude comment about how they had been hiding at the farm, especially after he had obviously enjoyed seeing her getting all red faced and flustered, but he hadn’t. He hadn’t even mentioned it. And he had shot down Xander’s suggestion of using magic. Willow had to admit her mission with Merle had gone far better than she had expected. And he had been downright polite when she returned his blanket. Ok, why was she standing here, spacing out and thinking about Merle again, when she was supposed to help Chao-Ahn sort out their first aid supplies? Shaking her head, Willow headed over to the area near the water pump, where Chao-Ahn was sitting surrounded by bags and boxes.

 

By the time evening rolled around they were done packing. Merle was sitting with Rona, Meredith and Sophia. Those three seemed to have hit it off, chatting excitedly about weapons, or nail polish, Merle wasn’t entirely sure. Sophia had sure turned out to be a surprise. Maybe it was due to the time she had to fend on her own or it was the slayer thing, but she was no longer the shy little girl he had seen at the quarry. Dawn was sitting next to him, squinting at yet another list. Part of him had scoffed at the whole packing drama that had taken nearly the whole day, but he had to admit that it wasn’t an easy task keeping a group this size feed, especially with the amount of food these girls could eat. Dawn had things under control, keeping track of everything down to the last toothbrush and she knew exactly where everything was stored, even without her inventory lists. He took a sip from his mug of canned mushroom soup and let his gaze wander. Faith and the teacher had already disappeared, probably christening their new quarters. Merle chuckled. Of course the whole camp had taken notice of the move, but one look from Faith and no one dared to comment. That girl sure could scare anyone into submission. He wasn’t sure if he should envy the teacher; the guy was either stupid or brave. Merle took another sip from his soup as his eyes landed on Willow. Noticing it, she tried to look away, pretending she hadn’t been watching him. Merle’s eye’s narrowed as he gazed at her over the rim of his mug. He had noticed her staring at him quite often during the day. What was that supposed to mean? With any other women Merle would suspect she was trying to check him out, but this was Willow. Ok, she did mention that boyfriend of hers, so maybe she was flexible, but still…Deep down Merle knew he had to be realistic. He might let his mind wander on occasion, but there was no chance in hell that the redhead was interested in him like that. First of all, she was a twenty-something college girl and those usually only spared the likes off him a second glance when they were drunk enough to stop thinking straight. For god’s sake, he was twice her age and missing a hand. Not to mention she was probably still dealing with the death of not one, but two girlfriends, emphasis on girl. Damn. He quickly lowered his gaze. Now he had been the one caught staring. What was wrong with him; making moon-eyes at a confirmed dyke like some first-grader? He downed the last of his soup and picked up his blade, attaching it to the prosthesis. His shift on watch was about to start soon anyway, might as well relieve Caridad early.

 

Willow watched him get up and leave. Was it because she had him caught looking in her direction? Or was it because she had been staring, again? And why was she staring? Willow had caught herself looking around camp searching for him with her eyes all day and she had no idea why. Maybe it was some kind of side effect from their run. It had been the first time she had been out there with just one other person as backup and their encounter with the zombies at the farm had been a close call. Maybe she was still subconsciously looking out for him after a whole day of watching his back to prevent any nasty from sneaking up on him. She tried to focus her attention back on Spike and Xander. They were speculating about the gas station and if there might be a chance to give the vehicles a more thorough check up, since they didn’t want to risk another surprise like the ambulance. Listening to Xander made Willow’s thoughts go back to their morning meeting. They had known each other for ages, but it had been Merle who noticed her discomfort at Xander’s suggestion. Granted, Xander had the tendency to put his foot in his mouth sometimes, but still, Merle had noticed right away. Ok, and now she was thinking about him again. Willow decided she was in serious need of some meditation to clear up her mind before she went to sleep. She got up and headed for the bus.

 

Andrea stumbled over a root and nearly bumped into one of Michonne’s “pets”. She quickly straightened up and hurried to catch up with her companion, wondering if she would ever get used to the two walkers. It had been a while since they teamed up, but she still knew next to nothing about the other woman. Michonne was definitely the silent type. Andrea, on the other hand, had started to talk about the things she had seen and survived since this whole mess started. She had even talked about Amy, noticing that it hadn’t hurt quite as much as it used to. But Michonne had made no mention about the past. Not that it really mattered. Michonne had saved her life, shared her food and stayed with her. That was the most important part, because Andrea was sure she would have gone crazy all on her own. Michonne stopped. They had reached a road and further ahead was a lone car visible in the dim evening light. Cautiously the two women moved closer. It was empty. Michonne tied her two walkers to a nearby tree and they tried to get comfortable for the night.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, managed to get some writing done despite having to work all weekend. I recently got one of those keyboards to use with a tablet, so maybe I'll try that while at the conference (I'm not going to pack my acient laptop on the off chance to have enough brainpower left for writing- too big and heavy). From this chapter on the story will focus on some other characters for a while. Enjoy and thank you for reading!

Buffy counted the locations they had crossed out on the map. Forty-three; that meant they had been on the road for over a month. She folded the map and stuffed it in the clove compartment. They drove past a lone zombie stumbling across the field at the side of the road. Buffy blinked. Did it really wear a hospital gown? She looked in the side mirror, but the zombie was already out of sight. The road they were currently traveling on was thankfully empty and the few abandoned cars they passed were left at the roadside. If it wasn’t for the occasional zombie sighting, you could almost think it was just like any other pre-apocalypse road trip. They even had decided it was save enough to turn on music without drawing undead attention during their last stop. With rule number five – “Driver gets to pick the music”- in mind, this decision had resulted in several people switching rides. Buffy grinned. Xander had traded places with Andrew to escape Anya’s choice of Celine Dione, but since Buffy was riding with Giles (David Bowie was acceptable) and Faith and Robin had the bikes, Spike would have been stuck in boy band hell. He practically begged Merle for a ride. Merle had been reluctant at first. Since Spike’s sparring match with Sophia he had tried to stay out of the vampire’s way; not that he would ever admit to being scared. In the end, Spike had mentioned the Motörhead CD he never really had a chance to play and Merle had given in. Giles was driving behind Merle’s pickup and Buffy suspected the male bonding going on had progressed from music to whisky, because it looked like the two were passing a bottle back and forth. She just hoped Merle would not attempt to out-drink Spike. A road sign announced they would soon reach their destination for the day, a town called Pine Creek. 

 

They found a nice camp site in the parking lot of what looked to have been a trucking company. At one point there had been a fire, so any buildings had been destroyed, but the walls surrounding the lot were still intact. The gate had been open, so a number of zombies had gotten inside and were milling around. While they cleared them out, Buffy kept a close eye on Sophia. Her fighting skills had greatly improved, but she was too defensive. The girl tried to cover it, but she was still scared by the undead. She fought back when attacked, but seemed to freeze up temporarily when she saw them and was hesitant to go on the offensive. Once the area was secured, sweep teams were dispatched to look for any traces of the quarry group. Buffy, Andrew, Anya and Sophia stayed behind to set up camp. She wasn’t sure, but during the fight, Buffy had noticed that Merle seemed to be slightly distracted. Several times he had paused, almost missing a zombie sneaking up on him. Maybe it was the alcohol, even if he didn’t appear to be drunk. To be on the save side, she paired him with Faith for the sweep. Buffy was currently sitting on top of the bus, waiting for the teams to come back. So far, they brought back some food, but no news on the people they were looking for. By now, they knew the places they would have stayed. Buffy turned around when someone climbed up behind her. It was Andrew. He sat down next to her, looking around several times, like he wanted to make sure no one was listening.

“I just checked to see if the laptop was charged and took the opportunity to explain it to Sophia,” he said. “She noticed the date and asked me if it was still working, so I told her it was probably a few days off, since the battery died once. She got pretty quiet after that and when I asked her what was wrong, she told me her birthday would have been three days ago. Her thirteenth birthday. Shouldn’t we do something, like a party and presents?”

“You’re right. Ok, we never really bothered with birthdays, but thirteen, that’s kind of big. She’s officially a teenager now and without the zombies she would probably have a great party or a sleepover with her friends. We’ll talk about it at the meeting tonight,” Buffy said, jumping off the bus and opening the gate to let Daisy and Vi in.

“They were here!” Vi told her right away. “Big house close to the town border. There was a pile of dead zombies on the front lawn; some had bullet holes, but others looked like they got an arrow to the head; no arrows though.”

Buffy nodded. By now they knew that Merle’s brother retrieved his arrows whenever possible.

“Nice house, by the way,” Daisy continued. “It even had a pool, complete with bloated zombie splashing around in it. Trust me, the stench was incredible. There were lots of empty cans in the kitchen and they had used the fire place for cooking. It had to be them.”

“Good. I have a feeling like we’re getting closer,” Buffy commented.

The girls headed off to clean their weapons and Buffy returned to her perch. Faith and Merle were the last to return that day, the sun already going down.

“No sign of them,” Faith said as soon as the gate was closed, “but we found another slice and dice job. Seriously, if I wouldn’t have known Dawn was on the other side of town I would have thought it was her. A whole stack of chopped up zombies on a street corner; whoever did it sure knows how to use a katana.”

Together they walked over to the fire and filled their plates with rice and chili.

“You think it’s a large group?” Buffy asked as they sat down to eat. They had been finding more and more zombies that had been killed in a way closely resembling her sister’s handiwork.

Merle shook his head. “It’s either a loner or a very small group; three, maybe four people max. I think they’re moving on foot.”

“Maybe we’re going to met them soon,” Buffy mused.

“Oh, and I found something pretty in an abandoned car,” Faith said and retrieved a knife from her jacket. It was a good fifteen inches, with a serrated top edge.

“Neat,” Buffy commented as Faith passed it to her. Turning the knife in her hand, she remembered her earlier conversation with Andrew.

“You know, this would be a nice present …”

 

On day eighty-two they reached Newnan, the last one of the big towns on their map. They camped on the football field of a local high school, which had been turned into a refugee center. Now the tents were mostly ripped to shreds, any supplies that might have been there looted, but the field had been surrounded by improvised fences and barricades and those were still up. The town was large, so it was impossible to cover the whole area in one day. By late afternoon, the adults of the group held another strategy meeting. Buffy had a hard time concentrating. It was frustrating. She constantly had the feeling they were this close to finally catching up with the quarry group, but they always seemed to be just out of reach. Buffy let her gaze wander, looking at the girls going about their business around camp. She had talked a lot with Giles about what they would have done if the whole zombie thing didn’t happen. They would have rebuild the council, setting up a school for young slayers to train, but still have a chance at a normal life. Buffy let her eyes linger on Sophia. She was sitting by the bus with Rona and Meredith, giggling like normal teenage girls while they were messing around with nail polish. They looked happy and carefree, but Buffy had noticed the change in Sophia. When they found her, she still had the eyes of a frightened child, but now her eyes sometimes got the hard look of a seasoned warrior. Buffy wasn’t sure she liked it. Willow had tried to give girls like Sophia a chance, but once again the powers, or fate or whatever had given them a big fat “Fuck you”, taking that chance away. Now it came down to fight or die. Robin was finishing up his suggestion for search patterns and Buffy tried to force her attention back to the task at hand.

“I think we should stay her at least for several days, if possible, maybe a week and make sure to stock up on anything we could get our hands on, because once we leave Newnan, there’s going to be a big stretch of nothing until Woodbury and that one appears to be tiny,” Robin said.

Xander retrieved a crumpled piece of paper from the pocket of his jeans and smoothed it out.

“We might have found something interesting while checking out at the police station“, he began. “This is a fax from the West Georgia Correctional Facility. They are requesting back up, because a lot of guards had called in sick and the situation was getting ugly. So, it looks like there’s a prison somewhere between here and Woodbury. Didn’t Merle mention that they had two cops in that group? If they knew about the prison, they might try to get there. I mean, we all agreed that they would probably look for something permanent and a prison sounds pretty secure to me.” 

“Could be a deathtrap“, Merle pointed out. “I get a feeling the guards just threw away the key and ran, so the place could be overrun by walkers. There’s also the possibility they managed to take over the prison and I wouldn’t recommend just waltzing in with a bunch of girls in that case.”

Faith seemed doubtful. “There may have been a riot, but I don’t think the prisoners managed to take over.”

“How would you know?” Merle asked.

“Ok, it could be different in an all-male facility, but to me it always felt like high school all over again with all the cliques. Lots of lamebrains like Harmony and her little fan club, if anyone remembers her. Then you had a few smart ones, but they were too busy maintaining their queen bee status and guarding their turf to work together and get something organized.”

“You were in prison?” Merle seemed genuinely surprised. Faith sure wasn’t an angel; but prison? That was unexpected.

“Yes, California Institution for Women. And no, I’m not in the mood to talk about it right now. We’ve got more important things to deal with.”

“I think we should at least have a look,” Buffy said. “Like Xander said, a prison would be familiar territory for a cop and once you’ve got it secured the place would be a fortress.”

“Even if the prison is overrun, provided you have enough people it could be possible to clean it out. I mean, there are walls, fences… I doubt the zombies would just roam freely. They could be trapped in closed off areas, so all you have to do is go section by section. It would take time and be difficult, but it could be done”, Robin pointed out.

Giles studied the map. “The prison isn’t marked here, so we better go back to the police station and see if we can find directions.”

“Ok, so we hang out here for a while and stock up, then we check out the prison and if that’s another dead end, it’s off to Woodbury”, Buffy summed up.

 

Her head was pounding. At first Andrea had written off the fatigue as lack of sleep, but soon it became apparent that she was sick. Her arms and legs ached, her eyes burned and she was sure she was running a fever. Michonne had brought her some pills from a pharmacy and for a little while the pain had gotten better, but now it was back full force. Andrea had wanted nothing more than roll over and sleep, but Michonne had refused to leave her behind. Andrea did her best to keep up as she stumbled through the woods, feeling guilty for slowing down her friend. They had heard the helicopter again. It had been impossible to see anything through the trees and at first Andrea had thought she was starting to hallucinate, but Michonne had heard it too. The sound came and went, like someone was doing a search. They had to get out in the open, to make sure. Finally they reached an open field and Andrea had to stop to catch her breath. Michonne had stopped too, her eyes fixed on the woods on the other side of the field. Andrea followed her gaze and her heart stopped. A thick cloud of black smoke rose from the trees. Gathering all her strength she rushed across the field, Michonne close behind. Following the acrid smell, they soon found what they had feared, the burning wreck of the helicopter. Andrea’s knees gave out and she doubled over, retching up the little food she had in her stomach. Michonne kneeled down next to her, rubbing her back and re-adjusting the blanket she had wrapped around her shoulders. She quickly tied her walkers to a tree.

“Try not to overexert yourself. Stay back.”

Drawing her katana, Michonne moved closer to the wreck. The first thing she saw was a soldier on the ground. His lower body had been ripped off in the crash. Assuming he was dead from the extent of his injury, Michonne moved on and peered inside the helicopter. Inside were two more soldiers. The one closest to Michonne didn’t move and had his eyes closed, but she couldn’t see any major injuries, so maybe he was just unconscious. The other one was in the back and she couldn’t really see him. Michonne was about to climb in, when she heard the sound of approaching cars. She looked up and saw at least two pickup trucks with armed men. They were coming closer fast. Michonne hastily returned to Andrea, who was about to stand up, her face looking hopeful. Michonne shook her head and motioned to hide in the undergrowth. The women ducked as the cars stopped and the men got out. They spread out and began to examine the crash site, when several walkers, probably drawn by the noise came shuffling out of the woods. While some of the men carried rifles, they didn’t shot; instead a large black guy raised a bow and took out a walker with an arrow straight through the eye, while a Latino raised a baseball bat. Michonne frowned. The man seemed to enjoy bashing the heads of the walkers, almost toying with them before he took them out. Andrea had her eyes fixed on a tall man with brown hair. She felt dizzy and everything got blurry, but one thing was sure, this was the man in charge. Next to them, Michonne’s walkers started to groan and she gave them a worried look. Having dealt with the walkers, the men continued to poke around the crash site. The leader paused, looking at the dead soldier on the ground. What happened next made Michonne sick to the stomach. The man pulled a knife and stabbed the corpse. What the hell? What kind of sicko stabbed a dead man? Michonne shot Andrea a worried look and froze. Right behind them, another walker approached. The men had already noticed it, so there wasn’t much she could do. To her relief, the walker’s attention was fixed on the men and it ambled past the huddled women without noticing them, but now all the men were looking in their direction. Michonne’s usually docile walkers got more and more agitated and tried to move towards the men, but the chain held them back. The guy with the bow shot the walker, but they seemed to hear Michonne’s pets. They kept looking around. Michonne decided she had to act. She jumped up, katana drawn and quickly cut off her walkers heads. The sudden silence seemed to confuse the men, but then they returned their attention to the helicopter. Michonne wasn’t sure, but it looked like they stabbed another body. Finally, after what seemed like eternity, the men seemed to get ready to leave. Michonne breathed a sigh of relief. A twig snapped.

“Ok, drop your weapons and raise your hands where I can see them”, a female voice ordered.

Michonne tightened her grip on the katana. Every instinct told her to fight, but then common sense took over and she dropped her weapon. They wouldn’t have a chance.

“Now turn around slowly.”

They did as told and Michonne raised her head. A young woman with brown hair in a braid was crouched in front of them. Michonne’s eyes narrowed as a walker appeared behind the woman. Without taking her eyes off her prisoners, she drew a knife and rammed it into the walkers head through its lower jaw as it tried to grab her shoulder without even looking. Andrea fainted.

 

They were in a car when Andrea drifted back to consciousness. Something soft, like a wool scarf was tied around her head, but it had slipped. She saw a walker strung up in a tree, lights, some kind of wall. A male voice was on the radio, telling someone on the other end they had three survivors. Three? So, someone survived the crash?

“Michonne?” Andrea whispered anxiously.

“I’m right here.” Her voice sounded calm.

The car jerked and Andrea’s head lolled to the other side. The woman from the woods was sitting next to her and when she noticed Andrea looking at her, she re-adjusted the blindfold in an almost motherly gesture. Andrea’s world went black again.

 

When she regained consciousness again, she was on a stretcher and a dark skinned woman in scrubs removed a needle from her arm while Michonne was pacing impatiently in front of her. 

“Where are we?” she asked groggily.

The woman glanced around, before answering. The door leading to a hallway was ajar and outside armed men were gathered.

“It’s not my place to tell,” she said curtly.

Michonne stopped pacing.

“We want our weapons back and leave!” she demanded.

“You can get them back anytime you want. You’re no prisoners,” a voice came from the door. The woman they had seen in the forest entered. She was dressed in tight jeans and a loose fitting shirt, a gun holstered at her hip. Her brown hair was pulled back in a French braid and she seemed to be young, somewhere in her early twenties. She turned to the nurse. “Thank you Loraine. You might want to see if Dr. Stevens needs some help.”

The woman in the blue scrubs nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her. Andrea sat up and glared at the newcomer.

“No prisoners? You took as here against our will.”

“You had a gun pointed to our head!” Michonne added.

The woman shrugged. “In case you haven’t noticed; gun-to-the-head is like the new handshake; all the cool kids are doing it nowadays. But, if you insist, we can do this properly.” She extended her hand towards Michonne. “Hi, allow me to introduce myself, I’m Amy.”

When Michonne didn’t take the offered hand, she turned to Andrea, who got of the stretcher and reluctantly shook it.

“I’m Andrea and this is my friend Michonne.” 

“See? It wasn’t too hard,” Amy said with a smile. Turning to Michonne, she explained:” I’m sorry you got the wrong impression. Your friend was sick and we just wanted to help, but we had to be careful. There are some not so nice people out there and we can’t just bring someone back without taking certain precautions.”

“Is that why you had to mutilate the bodies?” Michonne snapped.

“Huh?”

“The soldiers; they were already dead, so why did you have to stab them?” Andrea elaborated.

The woman looked confused. “They turned; we had to put them out of their misery…”

“They died in the crash. None of them was bitten or scratched,” Michonne interrupted sharply.

Realization dawned on Amy’s face. “You don’t know? It doesn’t matter. We all turn when we die. There’s no difference between getting bit and dying of old age. Once you’re dead, you’ll turn into one of them.”

Andrea and Michonne fell silent as they digested the news. The door opened and the man Andrea had figured out to be the one in command entered.

“I see you’ve got to get know each other,” he addressed Amy.

“Give us our weapons back and let us go,” Michonne demanded again.

The man shook his head. “It’s already dark and Loraine told me you could use some rest. It’s just not right to kick two women out in the middle of the night. Wait until tomorrow and you’ll get your weapons back and we’ll be happy to supply you with anything else you might need.”

“How’s the pilot, Governor?” Amy asked.

The man sighed. “The doc and Loraine are still working on him and they basically kicked me out, telling me I was only getting in the way. You know doctors; Dr. Stevens only said his condition was critical and he’s keeping us informed if there are any changes. I really hope he’s going to make it.” He clapped his hands together. “Anyway, let me show you to your room.”

Andrea and Michonne followed them into the hallway. The Governor paused in front of a double door and opened it with flourish.

“Welcome to Woodbury.”

Andrea reluctantly stepped outside, Michonne following her. They were in an empty street with the look of a small town main street. Open fires in baskets and barrels and Tiki torches provided some illumination, functioning as street lights. They walked down the empty road and Andrea got a better look at the structure she had seen when the blindfold slipped. The street was blocked by a wall made up of trucks, tiers, wood and metal fences. There was a walkway on top, guarded by heavily armed men.

“Are you all soldiers?” she asked, looking around, but she couldn’t see anyone else.

The Governor shook his head. “No, we have some vets, but most of us are just normal people, doing what’s necessary.”

“Guarding a ghost town?”

“No,” Amy laughed. “That’s just because of the curfew. Woodbury has a population of 73, but we have a strict curfew; no one out after dark except the guards. It’s for safety reasons. We’ve got some pretty adventurous kids and some teenagers who think they are more than ready to do their part and prove themselves. Being up on that wall takes a lot of concentration and we can’t afford false alarms or accidents with people walking around in the dark.”

One of the men up on the walkway, a large guy with long blond hair in a ponytail, suddenly raised his rifle.

“There’s a biter on three o’clock!” he called out.

A searchlight was turned on and swept through the darkness on the other side of the wall.

“He’s not coming alone!” another man shouted.

The blonde took aim and shot, the sound muffled by a silencer. Three more shots and the men on the wall relaxed again.

“Hey Stan; good shot!” Amy called up. “Remove them in the morning! They tend to stink up the place,” she explained, turning back to Andrea. The Governor paused and looked at Michonne.

“Maybe I should warn you; Stan has got a few tattoos you might find offensive. He used to be in the Aryan Nation or KKK or something, but his worldview has changed dramatically. The end of the world does that to a lot of people.”

“Yeah, he’s been with us almost from the beginning and he gets along with everyone. We met on the highway. His buddies got overconfident and drunk and when their RV broke down, they were easy prey for a group of biters. When we arrived, he was the only one alive, hiding in the RV.” Amy said. “He’s really a changed man, but since tattoo removal is no longer an option, he’s stuck with them.”

“At least he will always remember his past,” Michonne muttered.

They had arrived at one of the brick buildings lining the street and the Governor opened the door and led them to a small room on the ground floor. It contained two beds and a shower stall in the corner.

“It’s not much, but we can offer a hot shower,” Amy said. “But please make it a quick one.”

“There’s some food and water and if you need anything else, just ask the men outside,” the Governor added.

“You know what? You should really join us for breakfast tomorrow!” Amy suggested. She gave the Governor a sideways glance. “If anyone asks, you don’t know it from me, but he does make some mean scrambled eggs,” she whispered conspiratorially.

The man laughed.

“Have a good night’s sleep and I’ll pick you up tomorrow,” Amy said. They left.

Andrea dropped on the first bed and stretched out.

“A real bed! I’m going to sleep like a baby,” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, without weapons and guards on the door,” Michonne said darkly.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I had this sitting half-finished on my hard drive since May and only now I finally got around to finish it. When I started this, life seemed to be much more quiet. So, while I havn't abandoned this story, updates will definatley be more rare. All I can say is "sorry" and thanks to everyone still sticking with it!

“Yes; I know it’s a bit tacky to talk about a party after what happened today, but everybody has been looking forward to it, so we’re not going to cancel it. Just a small community gathering with cold drinks and a barbecue, fun for the whole family like they used to say. We do this occasionally so people can relax, have fun and get their minds of things, so we don’t forget why we are doing all this.”

“Sounds great,” Andrea said.

“It is great, you’ll see,” Amy promised. “Now, if you really want to leave, you better get your stuff and tell me what you need, so you can head out while there’s still some daylight left…”

“I think we’ll stay until tomorrow, maybe we stick around for the party,” Andrea interrupted.

Michonne wasn’t pleased, but didn’t comment.

“Then you better get back to your quarters before curfew and be sure to swing by the mess hall to get something to eat if you want to; they close up any minute now,” Amy suggested.

 

They had picked up some sandwiches from the mess hall and as soon as they were back in their room, Michonne got out their maps. Chewing her sandwich, she studied them.

“I think we best head back to the town we stayed a few days ago and then head towards the coast. With the ocean on one side, we would only have to worry about one front, since I highly doubt the walkers could swim. Maybe we can find an island, which would be the safest option…” Michonne mused.

“And then? We life off the sea and grow old and die peacefully in our sleep?”

“Why not?”

“Isn’t Woodbury exactly the opportunity everyone hopes to get? Finding a save place with good people and settle down?” Andrea asked.

“I’m just not convinced this is a good place. I can’t help it, but I’ve got the feeling these people are hiding something.”

“Michonne, can you hear yourself? You sound like some paranoid conspiracy fan! We’ve been here for just one day; that’s just not enough time to really get a feel for the town.”

“So, what do you think we should do?” Michonne challenged.

Andrea shrugged.

“It’s not like we have to make a decision right away. You’ve heard Amy; we can leave whenever we want to…”

“That’s what she said, but I get the feeling there is always some reason why we can’t leave right now,” Michonne interjected.

“We’ll see. Let’s stick around a bit longer. You don’t trust Amy; fine, then let’s talk to other people, get to know them. You think they are hiding something? Ok, so be nosey; see if you can find anything.”

“I think I already did. Have you seen the cars they brought back from the National Guard camp? There where bullet holes and blood...”

“Well, they have been overrun and they had been in fights before, so what’s so suspicious?”

“It just doesn’t fit with what they told us,” Michonne shrugged.

“Ok then. We see if we can find out more and then you’ll see your paranoia is completely unfounded!”

Michonne sighed.

“I hope so.”

 

They got up early the next morning, ready to start their investigation. Andrea was relieved to see that Michonne had managed to sleep last night, even if she had kept a firm grip on her katana the whole time. As they stepped out on the street, Andrea started to head for the mess hall; figuring breakfast would be a good opportunity to chat up people without being obvious. Michonne hesitated.

“I think I’ll check out this so-called lab”, she said in a low voice.

Andrea just nodded. While she disappeared inside the dining hall, Michonne continued down the street. She tried to look casual, like she was just taking a walk. The few people she met were heading straight for breakfast with nobody really paying attention to her. She scanned the wall, but the guards up there had their attention focused on what was going on outside. Unnoticed, Michonne reached the building housing the lab. There were windows, but they were small and too high up for her to reach them. Boldly, she tried the door. Locked. If Woodbury was such a nice, friendly place, why did they bother locking this place up? Michonne shook her head. Ok, maybe Andrea was right; maybe she was paranoid. Maybe the science guy locked up to keep the kids from messing with his stuff? She rounded a corner and found herself opposite from the building Amy had described as the repair shop. A truck and a pick-up were parked in front of it. Michonne noticed that this side of the lab had basement level windows. She crouched down and peered inside. The window was covered in dirt and dust, so she couldn’t see anything. Carefully, she cleaned a small spot in a corner. Inside, she could make out what looked like electronics. On a table in the middle of the room was a glass jar, containing a head. Michonne couldn’t be sure, but it looked like one of her walkers. What kind of experiments did this Milton guy do in there? Well, she would make sure to find out. Straightening up again, Michonne noticed another building in the distance. It appeared to be some kind of small factory. Deciding to check it out next, she walked past the vehicles, but stopped when she noticed something in the back of the pick-up. It was a pile of metal poles. Curious, she picked one up. At one end, there was a metal loop attached and some kind of mechanism to open and close it. She noticed little pieces of decaying flesh stuck to the loop and threw down the thing in disgust. It made a clanking noise when it hit the car and immediately walkers started to groan. Michonne quickly drew her sword and looked around. If biters had breached the wall, why was there no alarm? Maybe they had slipped through a gap in the wall unnoticed? When a wooden double door at the repair shop started to rattle, Michonne realized where the noise was coming from. They were keeping walkers looked up inside their town. Now the contraptions in the back of the pick-up made sense. They were actively catching them, for whatever reasons. She didn’t care. Spotting an axe on a wooden block, she picked it up, avoiding looking too closely at the contents of the metal bucket next to it. For now, Michonne was on autopilot. A few blows with the axe took care of the lock. Michonne took a few steps back and raised her katana. Sure enough, walkers spilled out of the door, probably a dozen. She was so focused on eliminating the threat, she never noticed someone approaching. Only when the last of the undead went down, neatly sliced in half, she heard the click of the safety.

“Drop the weapon and hands over your head! Turn around, slowly!” a male voice ordered.

Michonne had no choice. She dropped the sword and turned. Stan was standing there with another man. Milton came almost running towards them, wringing his hands, while the Governor followed behind, seemingly unperturbed.

“You ruined it!” Milton accused, as he skidded to a halt and stared at the chopped up walkers. He turned to the Governor. “She killed my specimens!”

“Relax, we’ll sort this out”, the Governor replied calmly. “Take her to the Hall; I’ll be with you shortly”, he addressed Stan. “And get Amy.”

Michonne was escorted of. The Governor picked up her katana and studied it thoughtfully.

“What about my experiment? She ruined it!”

The Governor sighed.

“Now Milton, I remember you just telling me yesterday you couldn’t do it without all the extra energy we need to cool the drinks for the party, so what’s the problem? Just get a team, go out to the pits and get more. We need them for the party anyway.”

Milton paled.

“I’m not sure… maybe Martinez or Stan…”

“I’d rather think you should be in charge; you know, to pick out the best specimens. Now, I’ve got to go and deal with our …guest.”

“Right… we’ll head out as soon as possible…”

“Good. It would be a pity if tonight’s entertainment would have to be cancelled.”

 

As Stan escorted her to the town hall, Michonne looked around for a sign of Andrea, but she was nowhere to be seen. Once inside, she was made to wait in a room that looked like an office, with Stan standing by the door, gun drawn. After a while, the Governor entered, dismissing Stan with a nod. Placing her katana on the desk, he took a seat and looked at her thoughtfully.

“Now, what to do with you?” he mused.

Michonne stayed silent, only narrowing her eyes.

“You see, you’re rash decision to kill those biters does pose a small inconvenience, but I do admire your quick thinking. You saw something you perceived as a threat and acted on it; something I kind of miss around here.” The Governor got up and came around the desk, standing directly in front of her.

“Stan, Martinez, Shumpert…they are good fighters, but not exactly the brightest tools in the shed, if you know what I mean”, he continued, lowering his voice. He took a step closer. “Amy is another matter, but she can’t take care of everything and is already swamped with all the things that need to be dealt with to keep this community safe. You and Andrea, you`re smart and you know how it’s out there.”

Michonne stood her ground, just looking at him, although his proximity and the almost seductive tone of his voice made her skin crawl.

“You could rise quickly through the ranks; hell, you’d be ready to start as second in command right away. We would, of course, forget about that little misunderstanding we just had. So, what do you think?”

Michonne’s answer was to dive past him and grab her sword of the desk. She whirled around and pressed the tip to his throat.

“I think I’d like to go now,” she said calmly.

The Governor slowly raised his arms, but seemed to be unfazed.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be more convincing…”

The door opened and Amy entered, drawing her gun and training it on Michonne immediately. The Governor stepped away from Michonne and turned towards her.

“Michonne has just informed me of her intention to leave Woodbury. Have someone escort her to get her belongings and make sure she gets some of the ration packs we recovered from the National Guard camp,” he said calmly.

Amy slowly lowered her weapon and, without taking her eyes from Michonne, relayed the order to one of the guards in the hallway. While Michonne left with the guard, the Governor wiped the small trickle of blood from his neck, where the katana had nicked his skin. Wiping his hand on his pants, he turned to Amy.

“Gather a small team and follow her when she leaves. Make sure she’s gone for good and doesn’t hang around in the neighborhood.”

“And if she does?”

“Then make sure she’s not causing any more problems.”

 

Michonne returned to her room and quickly stuffed the few things she had unpacked back inside her bag. Stan followed close behind, watching her every move and always keeping his hand close to his gun. Storage was next, where she was allowed to refill her water bottle, while Stan tossed her a few ration packs. Afterwards, she was escorted straight to the gate. While Stan was conversing with the guards, Andrea came running down the Main Street towards them.

“What the hell is going on?” Andrea asked, trying to catch her breath. She grabbed Michonne’s arm. “I thought we would not make a decision immediately!”

Michonne wanted to answer, but Stan had materialized next to them.

“You’re friend decided she wanted to leave right away,” he told Andrea curtly. “If you want to go with her, you better get your stuff.”

“No, I…Michonne, why? You agreed we stay for a while…”

“She obviously changed her mind,” Stan said,” so make up your mind.”

Michonne looked at Andrea, but she took a step back, shaking her head.

“No,” she said, “I’m staying”.

Michonne hugged her friend goodbye. She wasn’t the hugging type, but she had to give Andrea some kind of warning.

“Be careful!” Michonne whispered. She didn’t dare to say more with Stan pricking his ears right next to them. Michonne shouldered her bag and walked out of the gate, felling Andrea’s hurt look on her back.

Andrea stared after her until the gate was closed. Someone put a hand on her shoulder; it was Amy.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

Andrea whirled around.

“What happened? Something did happen; she wouldn’t just leave like this!”

“Whoa!” Amy raised her hands. “I don’t have a clue; someone said she was messing up one of Milton’s experiments. The Governor had a word with her, but instead of, you know, talking things through, she just announced she wanted to leave right now.”

Andrea balled her hands into fists. She blinked; she was not going to get all emotional, she was stronger than this.

“Look, I’m really sorry,” Amy said. “It hurts, I know the feeling too well; someone you thought to be a friend suddenly turning their back on you.” She stared off in the distance. “Back where I used to live, there was this girl. She and her friends helped me once when I was in a real mess with my mom. You remember high school, right? Like everyone had this part assigned, like some neatly labeled cardboard box; the jock, the nerd, the cheerleader…? We weren’t really friends back then. Anyway, once you get to college, you’re supposed to leave high school with all these stereotypes behind. So, I and this girl started to hang out. We had quite a lot of common interests, so we studied together and so on. Soon, her old high school friends started to get, I don’t know, jealous? She was really smart and talented, way better than all of them. Maybe her girlfriend thought I was putting the moves on her, not that I was interested in her like that. Well, in the end she gave in and dumped me, going back to her high school friends and the little box labeled “useful nerd”. What a waste.” 

“Ouch!” Andrea commented.

“So, yes, it does hurt, but in the end it’s better to realize who your true friends are,” Amy concluded her story. She took a deep breath and straightened up. “So how about you get some lunch while I go back to getting things ready for tonight?”


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! I come bearing gifts. Once again I'm slow to update, but during the last few days I managed not only to finish this chapter, but wrote a second one. Oh, and I'm beginning to hate word. Re-reading previous chapters I found tonns of typos which escaped the spellcheck, while it keeps complaining about things that aren't mistakes...

Michonne moved silently through the undergrowth. She had a feeling they would follow her, so she left the road as soon as possible after Woodbury and headed into the woods, keeping her senses on alert for any pursuers. It didn’t take long for her to hear the sound of snapping branches somewhere behind her and she had also heard someone making a very loud attempt at whispering. Michonne had no idea how many there were, but she knew she had to get rid of them. She briefly toyed with the idea of hiding and then ambushing them once they showed themselves, but then she abandoned the idea. They had probably guns and since she didn’t knew their numbers it could end badly for her. So for now, she would make sure they didn’t get to close and try to shake them off. The trees started to thin out and she could see open terrain further ahead. Not good if they simply wanted to kill her, but if they wanted to continue following her it might improve her chances because they would have to increase their distance if they wanted to stay out of her sight. Buildings came into view and Michonne started to walk faster. Maybe she had time to find a place to hide there. She glanced back and sure enough, there were four little spots moving in the distance behind her. Once she reached the first building, she quickly went around to the other side. It was a small store, with two cars parked in the front.

Michonne frantically scanned her surroundings for a place to hide, when she heard voices from inside the store, one male and one female. Great, with her luck it was another team from Woodbury. Figuring she didn’t have much time, since the team trailing her would probably up their tempo once they lost sight of her, she crawled underneath one of the cars. She had kept her katana in her hand ever since she had entered the woods and now it slipped from her sweaty fingers and ended up on the gravel just next to the car. Michonne stretched out her arm, but too late, they were already here. Stupid! Michonne groaned inwardly. Now she was toast; she should have just pinned a note to the car “Look here!”. Four sets of boots appeared next to her and one of them she recognized as Amy’s. Any second they would spread out, go to the other side of the car, see the katana and…Michonne slowly moved her hand towards her belt. Not that the knife, her only other weapon, would make a huge difference, but she would not go down without a fight. There was a noise from inside the store and the woman’s voice again. 

“Hide!” Amy hissed. 

Her thugs disappeared and Michonne just hoped they wouldn’t spot her from their cover. Amy seemed to check inside the car, before walking over to the other one, peering inside on the driver’s side. Then she leaned casually against the side facing the entrance of the store and waited.

 

Maggie had apologized as soon as Glenn held up the box of formula. He certainly had a knack for finding things. She smiled as he tossed a small toy into the plastic shopping basket. Out here, with just Glenn, things didn’t look so bad and the gloom of the prison felt like it was part of another life. It had started out so great. Sure, the prospect of cleaning the place of walkers had seemed daunting, but they had made good progress and they started to get optimistic. It looked like, after all this time on the road, they would finally have a place again they could call home. Things had gone downhill from there. First there had been the prisoners and her dad. Then they lost Carol, Oscar and Lori. She unconsciously rubbed her hands together, still felling the sticky blood that had covered them as soon as she made the first cut on Lori’s stomach. No, she told herself, she would not go there. Her dad was alive. They had found Carol and, once she had gotten enough water and some food and rest, she had recovered quickly. And they had a baby. A tiny little girl that depended on them to survive in this new world. As far as Maggie was concerned, she would do everything for her. She was the spark of hope for the future in all of this. Rick was another thing, but Maggie was sure that he would eventually work through his grieve and guilt.

“I think we got everything,” Glenn said, looking around the store one more time. “Or do you think someone might like to have some denture cleanser?” He pointed to a dusty shelve.

Maggie chuckled. “I don’t think so; my dad sure doesn’t.”

“Ok, so let’s get out of here.”

When they left the store, they stopped dead in their tracks. A woman, not much older than Beth, was leaning against their car, a big smile on her face.

“Hi there, I’m Amy, nice to meet you!”

Maggie could hear the shopping basket clatter to the floor, as she and Glenn automatically reached for their weapons. The woman didn’t seem to notice. She pushed off the car and walked towards them, her hand extended. Maggie noticed the gun she carried in a holster on her hip, but Amy made no move to draw it.

“I haven’t seen you around here; you must be new to the area. What’s your name?” 

From the corner of her eye, Maggie could see Glenn lowering his gun, looking confused. She did lower her weapon too, just slightly. The woman – girl- made her uneasy, with her smile and her cheeriness, like they just met standing in line at the school cafeteria.

“I’m Glenn and this is my girlfriend, Maggie. We’re not looking for trouble; we were just getting some supplies.”

Amy’s eyes zeroed in on the box of formula.

“Oh my gosh! You have children?”

“No, but a woman in our group just had a baby…”

Maggie tried to glare at Glenn. He wasn’t supposed to share all this information with a stranger. Sometimes, he was just too trusting.

“So, you’re travelling with a group? And with a baby? Wow, that’s though!” Amy exclaimed. “I just hope you found a safe place to set up camp.”

Glenn seemed to have realized his mistake.

“I guess so; we’re trying to stay on the move,” he said evasively.

“Well, I was just doing a bit of scavenging of my own…”

“All on your own?” Maggie asked pointedly.

“Yes, but I’m not far from home. I come from a little town in the area. The place is pretty awesome; we build walls for protection, so the biters don’t bother us too much. We have a nice little community going and we are always looking to expand. So, if you’re interested, you’re welcome to join us. I was on my way back when I noticed your car. Maybe you could give me a ride back, see the place for yourself.”

“You would just invite us in?” Glenn asked, disbelieve evident in his voice.

“Sure,” Amy shrugged. “Why not?”

Maggie tried to muster a friendly smile.

“We appreciate the offer, but we have to get back. People will get worried if we stay out too long.”

If Amy was disappointed, she didn’t show it.

“Ok, that’s understandable. How silly of me! Hey, but maybe I could tag along and met your people, like making first contact, opening diplomatic channels, so to speak?”

“Wouldn’t your people get nervous when you’re overdue?” Glenn asked.

“Na, not really; I do this all the time; others too. Like I said; we’re always looking for new people, so when someone meets someone, we try to get to know them.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s not possible,” Maggie said quickly. “It’s not the kind of thing we can decide on our own.” She was smiling so hard, her face started to hurt and she tightened the grip on her gun. “Suggestion: we set up a date, like tomorrow at noon and met here again to talk things over. I’m sure you’ll understand that we need to discuss your offer with the rest of our group.”

Amy’s demeanor changed instantly. Maggie had been prepared, but Amy had her gun aimed at them so fast, she didn’t have time to react.

“I’m really sorry to hear that,” she said, the sugary sweetness completely gone from her voice. “Guys!”

Three men emerged from their hiding places, weapons drawn. Maggie inwardly cursed. They had been surrounded all the time.

“You know,” Amy said conversationally, “I really tried to handle this situation in a civilized way. You got to understand; we can’t have strangers running around on our home turf, so I invited you over to hang out, get to know each other. But no, you had to get all hostile on me, so I fear we’ll have to do this the hard way. Greg, get their weapons.”

A burly man, the blond stubble on his sun burnt head matching his equally sparse beard, stepped forward and retrieved their guns. He patted them down for good measure, spending considerably more time on Maggie. Greg took away their knives and each of them had their arms secured behind their back with handcuffs.

“What about the other one?” one of the men asked.

“Hm, I don’t know,” Amy said. Then her face lit up, as she noticed something shiny in the sunlight. She bent down next to the car and picked up the katana. Underneath the car, Michonne had her knife in a death grip. If she was about to die, she would at least take that bitch Amy along for the ride.

“Look what we have here!” Amy exclaimed. “She had this and one knife when she arrived in Woodbury and Stan made sure she didn’t leave with anything else. That means all she’s got now is a measly little knife while she’s all alone out here. She’s not going to get far. I suggest we just let nature take its course. So, shall we go?

 

Michonne waited until she couldn’t hear their steps on the gravel anymore and then she waited some more. Finally she crawled out from underneath the car and dusted herself off. There was no question on what she would do now. She would go back to Woodbury and get her sword back. If she managed to find Andrea, she hoped she could convince her to get out of there. It would be an added bonus if they managed to find the prisoners. And if anyone got in her way, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill.

 

Andrea sipped her lemonade and surveyed the crowd milling around Main Street. She wasn’t really enjoying the party. It felt … fake and she was beginning to understand Michonne’s uneasiness about this town. Woodbury seemed to operate on some kind of cast system. The Governor and his lieutenants, like Amy, Stan or Martinez were at the top. Next were the foot soldiers. Men with often dubious pasts, as Andrea suspected. Last came the people of Woodbury and those troubled her most. Oh, they were friendly, but they seemed to live inside a bubble, like they had decided to simply ignore what was going on outside their walls. Earlier, she had talked to the guy in charge of the town’s power supply. She had listened to his plans with great interest until he had started to tell her that he was confident they would have proper street lights by next month. He was in charge of the power grid and his main concern was street lights? In a place with a strict curfew, that already had a working solution? Nearby a young woman had been bragging to her friend about her expensive bow and how she had “aced” her shift on the wall. Andrea had seen her; she had wasted arrow after arrow in trying to get a walker close to the wall, her aim growing progressively worse as she worked herself into a hissy fit. Carl would have done a better job than this lady and Daryl would have probably laughed his ass off. Ok, Daryl would have sneered and maybe lifted one corner of his mouth slightly. Andrea downed the rest of her lemonade and made her way to the buffet table.

“Andrea! Here you are; I’ve been looking for you!”

Andrea turned around towards Amy.

“Lemonade? You’ve got to be kidding! I should get you a beer while it’s still there,” Amy said, looking scandalized at the empty paper cup in Andrea’s hand. She disappeared briefly and soon returned with an ice cold bottle, which she handed to Andrea.

“Thank you. I was just on my way to get one.”

Amy took a drink from her own, nearly empty, bottle. “How was your day?”

“Fine, I guess,” Andrea answered. “Some of your people explained me their various jobs around town, like how you manage the power supply. The lady responsible for the gardens gave me a tour and I got to see her plans for a greenhouse.”

“Great! Makes me feel less guilty for deserting you once again,” Amy said.

“Busy day?”

Amy rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t believe it. I should really put an ad out; wanted: Personal Assistant, starting immediately. Would you be interested?”

“It depends; any benefits?” Andrea joked. She had no intention to make any kind of commitment.

“Great health care, but no paid overtime, sorry!” Amy deadpanned. “Speaking of overtime…” she trailed off.

From across the street, the Governor was looking at them and waving for Amy to come over.

“Ok, see you later!” she said and handed Andrea her empty bottle before jogging off.

After Amy had left, Andrea aimlessly wandered around. It was getting dark and the fires were already lit. Apparently there was no curfew tonight. Andrea noticed Milton, the science guy, all on his own and decided to ask him about it.

“Great party,” she began the conversation, “but I guess people will be heading home soon.”

Milton looked up. “Oh, it’s not over yet, we will merely change locations.”

“What for?” Andrea asked, intrigued.

“I think mere words cannot describe what is planned for later,” Milton answered cryptically. 

 

“But the show is about to start soon,” Amy pointed out. “There’s still time to question them tomorrow.”

“I want to know more about their group as soon as possible; we’ve had too many surprises recently,” the Governor answered. “We had the National Guard right under our noses without noticing; then that woman was causing problems. Now we have a new group out there that might pose a risk to our town. I want to know where they are, how many there are and what resources they have. We need to find out if we can integrate them or if we have to eliminate them. You said the man, Glenn, seemed to be easier to talk to?”

“Yes, Maggie was more cautious. Sadly, she made him shut up pretty fast.”

“Then we’ll start with Glenn; maybe he will be reasonable without his girlfriend around. Bring him to my office, but make sure to use the rear entrance,” the Governor decided.

Amy nodded. She headed down Main Street, absentmindedly smiling and greeting people in passing. They had two hours, possibly less, until tonight’s main event. Once she reached the warehouse by the lab, which they used as an informal prison, she was faced with a problem.

“What the hell happened?” Amy demanded, hands on her hips.

“He tried to put up a fight,” Greg answered defensively.

“With his hands behind his back? The guy might be a bit naïve, but he wouldn’t be alive anymore if he was that stupid!” Amy grabbed a handful of Glenn’s hair and lifted his head. He didn’t react. His face was covered in bruises, blood trickling out of his nose and his eyes were already too swollen to open them.

“We’ve been talking to him, trying to get him to spill some information, but then Greg started to threaten the girl and he lost it,” Stan explained.

Greg protested. “I didn’t make any threats!”

“You told him you would be looking forward to get to know her better! What was he supposed to think after you’ve been already groping her?” Stan snapped.

“I wasn’t groping her!” Greg turned to Amy. “You told me to search her…”

“Enough! The Governor wanted to talk to him before the fight. Do you want to explain to him why he can’t?” She pointedly looked at Greg, who didn’t answer. “I thought so. Ok, so we’ll have to take Maggie instead.” She turned to Stan. “Take her to the Town Hall office. Make sure no one sees or hears you. And you,” she looked at Greg again,” you’re not fighting tonight. Stan will pick someone else. You’ll stay here on guard duty and if anything else goes wrong I’ll have you on the pit squad permanently.” She took a step closer and narrowed her eyes. “Don’t forget, Greg, the ground is slippery out there and accidents happen. It would be a great loss if you fell into a pit full of biters.” She heard Stan coming and took a step back and straightened up. Stan appeared in the corridor outside with Maggie. She was still handcuffed and Stan had gagged her. When Maggie noticed Glenn’s limp body, she began to struggle, but gave up when Stan pressed his gun into her side. Her eyes shot daggers.

“We don’t tolerate this stuff. I will send the doctor over to take care of him and the Governor will hear about this”, Amy said to Greg, making sure that Maggie would hear it. 

 

Michonne was on her stomach, hiding under a bush and squinted into the fading light. It had been surprisingly easy to get back to Woodbury. She had encountered only a few lone biters, which she either knifed or managed to avoid all together. Watching the wall, she counted the guards. There seemed to be less than she remembered. They did patrol the perimeter, but there would be plenty of time to get closer. Michonne had already found a weak spot where she could get in; she only had to wait until it was completely dark.

 

Maggie rubbed her wrists and looked around. Stan had brought her to some kind of office building. He had removed the rag he had stuffed into her mouth and the handcuffs and ordered her to sit down. Now he was silently standing guard behind her chair. Maggie had no illusions; he still had his gun out and wouldn’t hesitate to kill her if she tried to make a run. She couldn’t escape anyway, not without Glenn. Maggie hoped he would be ok. They had been locked into separate rooms and when she heard the noises through the thin wall, she had helplessly banged on the wall and screamed for them to stop. The silence that followed was even more terrifying. She had feared they had killed him. To see him alive, although badly hurt had been a small relief. Maggie wondered about the situation at the prison. Did the group send out a search party to look for them? Her dad and Beth were probably worried sick. She had to find a way to get out of this place. A man entered the room and Maggie looked up. She could feel Stan behind her snapping to attention, so this must be the leader.

“Thank you, Stan, that’ll be all for now. Oh, and we need a replacement for Greg tonight. Maybe Warren,” the man said and sat down behind the desk.

Maggie wasn’t good at guessing peoples’ ages, but she placed him somewhere around forty.

“Ok. Tony and Mike are outside in the corridor, if you need them, Governor,” Stan said and left the room.

“You call yourself Governor?” Maggie croaked. The rag had soaked up the last bit of moisture still left in her mouth.

The man sighed. “You know those nicknames that kind of stick? Would you like something to drink?” Not waiting for an answer, he poured a glass of water from a pitcher on the desk and offered it to her.

Maggie hesitated, but then took it and gulped it down, watching him closely over the rim of the glass. His clothes were the cleanest she had seen in a long time and his brown hair still had a haircut. If it wasn’t for the gun holstered at his hip, he would not look any different from someone from before. He waited for her to finish her drink before continuing.

“You have my deepest apologies for what happened. I hope I can assure you that this is not how we usually handle things. Amy… she’s got excellent leadership skills, but she’s still young and sometimes makes rash decisions. She thought she would act in the best interest for our community. You see, we’ve been under attack before. We’ve got resources and while we don’t hesitate to share them, there are people out there who don’t bother to ask, but try to take the things they want by force. We have families and children living in Woodbury, so we have to be careful.”

“And when your people beat up Glenn? Were they just careful?” Maggie shot back.

“I can assure you that I’ll deal with Greg to make sure something like this will not happen again. Your friend will receive all medical attention he needs; Amy has already sent for our doctor.”

Maggie leaned back in the chair and crossed her arms. He was good, like a Politian on the campaign trail. The nickname “Governor” was right on the spot. If they had met him first instead of Amy, Maggie uncomfortably realized, she might have fallen for the Good Samaritan act. But that didn’t work anymore, not after what happened. He was just trying to get information out of her. Maggie had seen enough episodes of Law & Order to recognize the good cop/ bad cop routine. She kept silent and waited for his next move.

“Amy told me you where traveling with a group?”

“Yes.”

“I hope you’ve been able to gather enough supplies. It can be quiet difficult to find enough food for a larger group of people. It wasn’t easy for us in the early days.”

“We’ll manage.”

“You were getting formula; your friend mentioned a woman in your group just had a baby. That can be dangerous on the road. Biters are attracted by noise and if the child starts crying… we could offer your people a safe place to stay.”

“I can assure you, we are safe.”

He was trying to get information. Maggie was not giving him any. The game continued. The Governor pretended to make friendly conversation, she gave evasive answers. Maggie was getting tired. He kept asking the same questions, her answers kept getting more and more monosyllabic. She tried to stay alert, but at one point she started to zone out and didn’t bother to answer anymore. When someone entered the room, she snapped back. It was the girl, Amy. Maggie turned her attention quickly back to the Governor. He was losing his patience.

 

“You were right; she’s not very forthcoming with information,” he said to Amy. 

 

“That’s what I expected,” she answered and held up a small glass jar containing a clear liquid. “We should try this.”

 

The Governor moved behind the chair and had grabbed her arms before Maggie had a chance to react. 

 

“And this is really going to work?” the Governor asked.

 

“Absolutely,” Amy answered. 

 

On instinct, Maggie squeezed her mouth shut. All of her senses went into alert. Whatever this stuff was, she had no intention to drink it, but she had no choice. Amy didn’t hesitate, but pinched her nose. Maggie fought, but the need for air won out and as soon as she opened her mouth, Amy poured the stuff into it and put her hand over Maggie’s mouth. The liquid tasted herbal and reminded her vaguely of cough syrup. She struggled, but in the end, she swallowed, a small amount of liquid trickling down her chin. They let her go. At first, nothing happened, but soon she felt fuzzy. Someone put hands to the sides of her face, a gentle, almost motherly gesture. Everything was swirling and she looked into someone’s eyes.

 

“This might be uncomfortable.”

 

Someone screamed. Maggie dimly realized it was herself.


	22. Chapter 22

Andrea wanted to run, but she didn’t want to draw attention. Once outside the old factory building, which was nothing more than four walls and a roof, she paused. She could still hear the cheers and the booming music. It made her feel sick to her stomach, so she moved further away, until the noise was only a faint murmur in the distance. Andrea took a few deep breaths. Milton’s cryptic remark had sparked her curiosity, so, as the party broke up and there was no sign of Amy, she tagged along when he left. The whole set up had confused her, the stands filled with people arranged along the walls, the music… She wanted to ask Milton, but one look at his face and she decided against it. The man clearly wanted to be anywhere but here. Then the “show” started. She jumped when they brought out the walkers. Amy, who had slipped into the empty seat next to her, caught her reaction and leaned over. Her whispered comment, that this was just staged and that they had removed the walker’s teeth hadn’t been helping. She had looked around at the people cheering on, as Martinez and another guy tried to beat each other into a bloody pulp while surrounded by snapping walkers. People holding up little kids, so they had a better view; would they still do that if one of the men in the arena was torn apart by the walkers? This was more than just letting off steam; this was insane, a perverted gladiator show. Andrea straightened up. She would pack up her stuff and get out of here first thing in the morning. Michonne had been right. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could catch up with her… Someone cursed and Andrea spun around. A faint light was heading in her direction. She quickly stepped back, hoping the person approaching wouldn’t notice her in the dark. The last thing she wanted right now was arguing with one of the guards. When the man got closer, Andrea noticed that he was dragging something while cursing non-stop.

“Get her back to her cell when she wakes up!” the guy said in a high pitched voice, clearly imitating someone, probably Amy. “Waking up my ass!”

He dropped the person he was dragging along to the ground and put down his lantern next to her head. It was a woman with dark hair and a familiar face. This couldn’t be…Maggie? The man kneeled down next to the woman and slapped her face.

“Come on, bitch, rise and shine!”

He slapped her face again and she groaned. Andrea held her breath. It was Maggie! Andrea couldn’t believe it. How did she get here? And what the hell did they do to her? The guy had managed to get Maggie on her feet and she stumbled along unsteadily as he continued walking. Andrea followed them at a distance. She had to find out where he was taking her. Andrea estimated they were not far from the wall. He was heading for a building she recognized as the one Amy had claimed to be the repair shop. A light was mounted on the wall and Andrea, not wanting to be caught, gave it a wide berth. She reached the side of the building and peered around the corner just as the guard was disappearing down some stairs, probably leading to a basement. It didn’t take long for him to come back, without Maggie, and disappear into the darkness. Andrea leaned back against the wall. What now? She had to get to Maggie somehow. There had to be guards down there, they wouldn’t leave prisoners without guards, she had to figure out…Andrea froze as a hand covered her mouth.

“Ssh, it’s me!”

Relieved, she recognized Michonne’s voice and turned around.

“Michonne, I’m so glad you’re back! How did you get in?” Andrea whispered.

“There are not too many guards on the wall and I found a spot I could slip through. They went after me; Amy and some goons. Didn’t catch me, but took someone else instead.”

“I know; I’ve just saw one of the guards with Maggie…”

“You know her?” Michonne sounded surprised.

“She was part of my old group; remember the farm?”

“She wasn’t alone; there was a guy with her, Asian…” Michonne whispered.

“Glenn?” Andrea whispered back. “Oh shit; we…”

“We will, but first I’m getting my sword back!”

“Your sword?”

“Shht!” Michonne hissed. “Amy took it and I’m not leaving without it. You stay here, I’ll be right back.”

Her tone told Andrea not to argue. She grabbed Michonne’s arm.

“Be careful; there’s no curfew tonight. There’s a …meeting; I’ll explain later, but when it’s over there might be a lot of people wandering around outside.”

“Ok, you just wait here.”

Michonne disappeared into the night. 

 

Keeping Andrea’s warning in mind, Michonne moved along the main street, ducking behind buildings. She had to act fast, but she had had enough time hiding outside all afternoon to think about this. There was only one place her katana could be; the Governor’s apartment. When Amy had given them back their weapons on the first day, she already had them when she joined them outside, so they had to be kept at least in the same building. Also, Michonne was sure they saw her sword as a trophy, something to put on display. When she reached the building and looked up, she saw that the lights were on inside. Michonne hoped Andrea was right and he was still at the meeting, whatever that was. If he was home, things would get ugly. Silently she entered the building and climbed the stairs. Outside the door she waited, listening intently. When she was sure everything was quiet inside, she slowly opened the door. Michonne breathed a sigh of relief. Nobody home. She looked around. He wouldn’t keep it in plain sight, she was sure. There were two closed doors and Michonne tried the first one. It was the bedroom, with a meticulously made bed. The flowery pattern was not what she would have expected. She tried the other door, but it was locked. Michonne was sure she was on the right track. She had to get in without making too much noise. Looking around, she remembered there had been a key in the bedroom door. Sometimes these keys worked on more than one door. Michonne grinned, when the key turned easily. The grin disappeared when she entered the room. It was a study and one wall was almost entirely taken up by fish tanks stacked on top of each other. In the greenish light she saw they contained heads. Michonne immediately recognized her walkers, but there were a lot more. Hesitantly, she stepped closer. As if sensing her, the closest head snapped its teeth, the movement slowed down by the surrounding liquid. Michonne shivered as she turned away. No wonder the door had been locked.

 

Staying close to the wall, Andrea suppressed the urge to pace. Suddenly it dawned on her that Amy might start searching for her since she left without an explanation. She had to get back. When she entered the arena again, nobody seemed to notice her and the fight wasn’t over yet, although the walkers surrounding the two men seemed have gotten closer. Martinez attempted a right hook, which his opponent dogged, narrowly avoiding being grabbed by a walker. The crowd cheered and Andrea averted her gaze. Apologizing to the people she had to squeeze by, she climbed the stands until she reached Amy. The girl had her eyes fixed on the fight.

“Where have you been?” she asked without looking up.

So she had noticed Andrea had been gone.

“I needed some fresh air, my head is killing me”, Andrea explained.

That got Amy’s attention.

“Should we get Lorraine or the doc?”

“No!” Andrea held up her hands. “It’s just a headache. Maybe it’s the beer or maybe I’m just not used to all this noise …I’ll just crawl into bed and tomorrow morning it will be gone.”

“Ok, see you tomorrow”, Amy said and turned her attention back to the fight.

 

The katana was in plain sight on the desk. Michonne picked it up and paused. Underneath was a large book, some kind of notebook. Did the Governor keep a diary? She hesitated and then opened it. The first page was filled with names. It wasn’t a list, just line after line full off names, nothing else. Michonne turned the page, only to find the same thing on the next one. She frowned and flipped through the book. Soon, the names were replaced by marks, like the writer wasn’t bothering with recording names anymore, just numbers. It send a chill down her spine, reminding her of that Stephen King novel where the guy kept typing the same sentence over and over. Michonne closed the notebook and looked at the collection of heads again. The Governor was not some kind of control freak. Somewhere along the way the man had gone insane.

 

On her way back, Andrea was terrified someone might follow her. Not that she could see much, with the path only sparsely illuminated by a few almost burned down fires in oil drums. She headed in the direction of the main street, only veering off towards the warehouse at the last minute while constantly looking over her shoulder. Making it safely back to the spot where she had met Michonne, Andrea decided she could as well do something useful. If she just stood there, waiting, she would only get more nervous than she already was. Cautiously she approached the steps leading down to the basement, figuring she could claim to have gotten lost if someone saw her. Andrea felt her heart pounding as she stepped into the light. Very slowly, one step at a time, listening closely for any noise, she moved down the stairs. They ended in an enclosed space with a cracked concrete floor and a door on the left, leading into the actual basement. This would give her the advantage to stay out of the line of sight from whoever was inside. Once she had reached the last step, Andrea pressed herself against the wall and took an unsteady breath. Now or never. She stuck her head around the corner, briefly glancing down the basement corridor and drew back immediately. Only one guard was visible, a slightly overweight man thoroughly focused on picking his nose. He was sitting on a chair, tilted back against the wall of the corridor. One side of the corridor had several doors, all open, with one exception. Andrea debated to retreat and wait for Michonne, but then decided against it. Time was an issue; they could get caught any second. She cursed herself for leaving the gun back in her room; how could she have been so stupid? But shooting the guy was out of the question anyway, the noise would only give her away. In her mind, Andrea formulated a plan. It was risky, but it was only one guard and she was confident she could take him on using only her knife. Ok, who was she trying to fool? The only way to take him out would be to kill him. Andrea moved until she was halfway up the stairs and paused. When she went down again, she made sure to be as noisy as possible. 

 

It was a noise like someone knocking on a door. Michonne stood perfectly still. There it was again, now accompanied by a by a barely audible whimper. There was someone else in this room. She slowly turned her head and only then she saw the metal door hidden in the shadows next to the fish tanks, looking very much like the door to some prison cell. With her sword raised, Michonne stepped closer. The person inside the cell was a child, a little girl. She could see a red skirt in the dark, but nothing else. The girl drew labored breaths, like she wanted to cry and tried desperately to suppress it. Michonne dropped her sword and hurriedly opened the latch that secured the door. The girl stumbled into the light, the noise of the chain dragging behind her along the floor making the hair at the back of Michonne’s head stand up. That sick bastard had a little girl chained up in here! Her arms were trapped in a makeshift straightjacket. Strands of blond hair were sticking out from underneath the pillowcase that covered her head. Michonne bend over the girl and found the chain was attached to a collar around the girl’s neck. She removed the chain and crouched down in front of the child.

“Oh god, it’s ok. I’m not going to hurt you.”

With trembling hands Michonne lifted the pillowcase, anxious to not scare her. It was a walker. A child walker. Michonne reared back. With a snarl it launched itself at her. Michonne kept it at arm’s length, picking up her discarded weapon. She had seen a few child walkers from the distance, but never this close. She whirled around, her weapon still raised when the door burst open. It was the Governor, his gun pointing at her, but as soon as he saw her holding the girl, he lowered it, his expression pleading.

“Please, don’t hurt her!” he begged.

Michonne rammed the katana into the walkers head. Instead of shooting her, the Governor dropped the gun and lunged for her with an inarticulate scream, taking Michonne by surprise. She fell backwards and tried to bring her sword up, but it was knocked from her hand. He grabbed for her neck, but she managed to turn her head and bit his hand at the last minute. He screamed in pain and Michonne was able to throw him off. She rolled away, trying to get her weapon and get back on her feet. The Governor was right behind her and got hold of her hair. Tears of pain welled up in her eyes as he swung her around and slammed her into the table, bashing her head on the surface with brutal force. Michonne felt she skin on her forehead split and blood running down her face. She rammed her elbow into his stomach and he stumbled back. Michonne turned in one fluid motion and smashed her fist in his face, but he hit right back. His fist connected with her right shoulder and her arm went numb. She tried to make a run for the door, but he grabbed her again and pushed her against the wall face forward. Michonne managed to force him back, using the wall for leverage, but he used the momentum to throw her into the stack of fish tanks. Michonne went down in a shower of glass and liquid. She tried to get back on her feet, but the slippery floor made it difficult and he was on her before she could get up, his hands closing around her neck. He was chocking her. She tried to break free, tried to pry his hands from her neck, but he was too strong. Her brain was screaming for air and her eyes felt like they would pop out of her skull. Her hands moved blindly around the floor, desperately searching for something she could use as a weapon. Her hand touched wet hair and she snatched it back. It was one of the heads. Then she felt broken glass. She took hold of the shard, not feeling when the glass cut through her glove and into the skin of her palm as she held it tightly. With her last bit of strength, she rammed the shard into his face, embedding it into his right eye. He reared back, howling in pain. Michonne scrambled to her feet and ran, picking her sword from the debris on the way.

 

She practically fell into the corridor. Andrea had to hold on to the wall to steady herself and giggled.

“Hey, you!”

The guard was on his feet, his hand hovering over his holster. Andrea raised her head, making sure she wasn’t looking directly at him.

“I can’t find my bed”, she slurred, still looking at the wall instead of the man. From the corner of her eye she could see him come closer and turned her head in his direction. “I was at this great party and now I’m sleepy and my bed is gone.” Andrea lowered her voice to a confidential whisper. “I think it’s playing hide and seek! Have you seen it?”

She started to walk towards him, swaying. By now, the man was completely relaxed, his eyes checking out her body. Creep. Andrea pretended to trip over her own feet and he caught her, just like she had hoped. She looked up at him with big eyes.

“Can you help me find my bed?”

The guard chuckled. “Sweetheart, you sure did enjoy that party.”

“Oh yes”, Andrea slurred,” they had lots of beer. Didn’t get one in a long time.” She took hold of his shirt, as if to steady herself.

“It looks like you had way more than one”, he said and put his hands on her hips.

Andrea nodded. The hands moved down to her ass.

“You know, Sweetheart, I don’t know where your bed is, but you’re lucky, I have one right her, if you wouldn’t mind sharing.”

Andrea nodded enthusiastically. “You’re really nice.”

He started to walk her backwards into one of the rooms. Andrea allowed him to maneuver her until her feet caught on something soft and she let herself fall down to the mattress. The small room was almost dark, the only light coming from the corridor.

“Oh, comfy”, she giggled.

“It’s going to get even more comfy”, he said and crawled on top of her, immediately starting to paw her breasts through her shirt.

Any shred of remorse she might have had for what she was about to do evaporated. Cradling his head with her left hand, her fingers felt for his ear, while she slowly drew her knife. He was so busy groping her, he never saw it coming. The blade entered his skull and he went limp. Andrea shoved his dead body of her and turned him over. She took his gun and started to search for keys. Once she found them, she ran to the door which she suspected to be her friend’s cell and opened it. Andrea glanced only briefly at Maggie, as her attention immediately was drawn to Glenn. He was lying on a mattress, much like the one where she just killed the guard and didn’t move. His eyes were swollen shut and his face was covered in cuts and bruises. Blood was spattered all over his shirt and smeared on his face. He looked so bad; Andrea’s first instinct was to check his pulse as she kneeled down next to him. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found it. He drew in a sharp breath, when she touched his face, but otherwise showed no reaction. Andrea patted him down quickly, fearing there might be broken bones, but she didn’t find anything obvious. There might be, of course, broken ribs. Only then she realized that Maggie was completely silent. She looked up. Maggie was standing there, a vacant look on her face and her eyes starring of into the distance.

“Maggie?”

Andrea touched her arm. No reaction. She waved her hand in front of Maggie’s face, but she didn’t even blink. Did they drug her or was she in shock? A horrific thought on her mind, Andrea checked her clothing, while Maggie stood there, unmoving. Nothing seemed to be out of place. But what had happened to Maggie? And how were they supposed to get them out of Woodbury? It was clear that they would have to carry Glenn and Andrea wasn’t sure how much help Maggie needed. Her head snapped up when she heard hurried footsteps in the corridor and she raised the gun she had taken from the guard.

“We have to go! Now!” Michonne urged and skidded to a halt. Relived, Andrea lowered her weapon. There was blood on Michonne’s face and her lip was busted. She didn’t bother to ask why Andrea didn’t wait for her.

Andrea motioned towards Glenn. “He can’t walk…”

“Ok, then we have to carry him.” Michonne crouched down next to Glenn and hoisted him upright. He groaned. Michonne draped his arm over her shoulder and Andrea quickly took over the other side. Standing up, Michonne winced slightly at the weight. She looked at Maggie.

“What’s wrong with her? She wasn’t like that earlier”, she said, alarmed.

“I don’t know, maybe they drugged her. But what happened to you?”

“Later. Think she can walk?” Michonne readjusted her hold on Glenn.

“I think so.” Andrea grabbed Maggie’s arm.

“Good, let’s go.”

As they started moving, awkwardly at first, Andrea noticed Michonne walked with a slight limp, but it didn’t slow her down. Thankfully, Maggie was able to keep up. They headed into the direction of the wall. Michonne paused briefly at the lab building and squinted. They had lights on the wall and she checked if there were any guards patrolling. When the coast was clear, they continued on, with Michonne leading the way. Once they reached the barrier, Andrea had to hold Glenn’s full weight for a bit, as Michonne pushed a metal plate aside that was covering the space underneath a truck. Michonne crawled into the opening and told Andrea to put Glenn on the ground. Holding on to his legs, she pulled him through. Next was Maggie, who seemed to understand on some level what she was supposed to do and crawled through when Andrea pushed her. She went last, pushing the plate back to its former position. Outside, they hurriedly took cover behind one of the abandoned cars littering the road. It occurred to Andrea that they had been left on purpose, to make it impossible to drive a vehicle straight at the wall. They had reached their shelter just in time, because now they heard voices up on the wall. A searchlight was switched on and started moving along the street. Andrea held her breath.

“Over there!” a voice called.

Andrea heard the soft “plop” of a silencer and a thud. She turned her head. A walker with a clean headshot was lying just a few feet away.

“Think he brought friends?” someone inquired.

“Na, think it was a loner!”

The searchlight did one last sweep, and then it was switched off. Minutes passed, then Michonne looked at her over Glenn’s head.

“Go!”

They moved along the road as fast as they dared, using the cars for cover. Andrea kept a firm hold on Maggie’s arm, terrified of losing her. Glenn was growing increasingly heavy. Finally Andrea stopped. She had recognized the tree with the strung up walker and assumed they were now at a somewhat safe distance.

“We need to get a car.”

Michonne shook her head. “They’ll hear it.”

“But we can’t keep going like this. Look, the road is going downhill, not much, but it’s enough to get us rolling.”

Michonne gave in. “Fine.”

Andrea lowered Glenn to the ground and started to check the nearest car, taking Maggie with her. The key was in the ignition. She hoped it had gas and the battery was still good. She opened the door and the interior light came on. Cursing she fumbled to switch it off. She turned the key to check the gas; half full. Andrea wrestled Maggie into the backseat. Michonne wanted to put Glenn in the back too, but Andrea pointed out it would be better if one of them got in with Maggie. Also, it would be less difficult to get Glenn in the passenger seat. Michonne offered to drive, but Andrea refused.

“You need some rest; you look horrible. What happened back there?” Andrea asked, as Michonne climbed tiredly in the back.

“The Governor is worse than I thought. He’s insane.”

 

The factory was slowly emptying as people started to head home. Amy looked around, but there was still no sign of him. She said her goodnights with a smile on her face, but inwardly she was fuming. Image was everything and she had explained to him more than once how important these little gatherings were. Anyone could declare himself the leader, but if you had nothing more, someone would soon start to question your authority. No, you had to be sure that everyone saw you as the nice guy, the one who stopped by for the occasional chat about the kids, the one who looked out for you. You had to gain peoples trust to get them to follow you without question. It was his damned job to be here, smile, wave, make the announcements and congratulate the winners, not to hide in his study. By the time she climbed the stairs to his place, her anger had subsided. He was, after all, nothing more than a broken man, desperate to get his daughter back. That’s why he allowed Milton to perform his experiments, research that amounted to nothing more than giving Milton a purpose in life and a feeling of importance. And that’s why the Governor had made her his second-in-command. At the top of the stairs she paused, alarmed. The door to the apartment was wide open and she could hear faint sobbing. Amy hurried inside and stopped dead in her tracks. The Governor’s study was in complete chaos. Furniture was overturned and blood was smeared on the walls. The floor was covered in broken glass. His collection of heads were scattered on the ground, lying in puddles of liquid, snapping their jaws mechanically. In the middle sat the man himself, cradling the body of his daughter. He looked up when Amy entered and she took an involuntary step back. A large shard of broken glass was sticking from his right eye socket. He didn’t seem to feel any pain. A mixture of tears and blood was running down his face.

“She killed her. That fucking bitch killed her!” he sobbed. “Can …can you still help her?”

Slowly, Amy knelt down next to him and put a comforting arm around his shoulder. She had never outright agreed to help Penny; it always had been just something in the background, an unspoken promise to make sure he made the right choices. Now she felt almost sorry she never really started to work on a spell. Turning Penny back into what she had been, a living, breathing girl, would have been a true masterpiece. Amy studied the stab wound in the girl’s head. Nope, nothing to be done there.

“I’m sorry. I wish I could do it, but her brain is too damaged…” Amy tried to be gentle.

The Governor buried his face on her shoulder and Amy felt the mixture of blood and tears seep into her shirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Escape from Woodbury! Anyone else who finds Michonne somewhat difficult to write? Anyway, after this chapter we will finaly get back to Team Buffy.   
> Oh, and I'd like to mention something terrible happened; I have a plot bunny. A persitent one. I just finished binge watching the last season of Game of Thrones (yeah, I know I'm late) and this little bunny keeps telling me those guys are in desperate need of a Slayer. I have a hard time to keep this story up and running, timewise, so starting on another WIP? Bad idea. But that bunny is giving me that look...


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, my writing has slowed down to a crawl, like a line a week. I had this sitting on my harddrive for months and just never got around to posting. I really need to give myself a good kick and get back to work.

Andrea felt her eyes growing heavy. In the rearview mirror she could see Michonne’s sleeping form in the back. The woman had more or less passed out the minute she finished relating her fight with the Governor. Andrea wondered if he was dead. She hoped he was. Maggie seemed to be still wide awake. Or not; it was hard to tell. Andrea could almost feel her vacant stare. She forced her attention back on the road, but soon her gaze drifted to the man next to her. Glenn worried her the most. He had moved a bit a few times and there had been the occasional groan, but other than that he showed no signs of waking up. Ok, it wasn’t likely he would manage to open his eyes anytime soon, but Andrea had expected him to regain some form of consciousness by now. What if he had cerebral hemorrhage? She didn’t have a flashlight to check his pupils to make sure. In fact, they didn’t have anything except two knives, Michonne’s katana and the gun she’d taken from the dead guard. No food, no water, no anything. The car lurched, startling her. She steered to the left and slowed to a stop, heart pounding. She had nearly veered of the road. There was no way she could go on driving without getting them all killed. Andrea contemplated waking Michonne, but decided against it. All she needed was a little nap and she would be good to go. A faint glow told her the night would be over soon; once they had daylight they needed to start looking for some food and water. Andrea made sure all the windows were closed and the doors were locked securely before leaning back and closing her eyes.

 

Merle glared at the two girls moving down the road and lit a cigarette. Dawn wrinkled her nose and plopped down next to him, leaning her back against the pick-up.

“For fuck’s sake,” Merle complaint,” there’s a perfectly good bush right here! They don’t have to go across the fucking state line to take a piss!”

He didn’t have to look at Dawn to know she was giving him the eye-roll.

“Maybe they want some privacy?”

Merle snorted. “Yeah, privacy; that’s why you girls turn a trip to the bathroom into a fucking group event.”

“Gods, Merle, you are really clueless when it comes to women,” Dawn chuckled.

“Clueless? I know plenty about women…” Merle huffed.

“Yeah, that’s why you look at Willow like some lovesick freshmen all the time!”

Merle glared at her in a way that was borderline threatening. Ouch; guess I hit a nerve there.

“What is taking them so long?” Merle asked in irritation, obviously keen on changing the subject.

“Does it matter? Buffy seems to think we’ve got all the time in the world to get to the prison. I mean we’re so close, we could just walk there. But no; we hardly move at all! Instead we camp for days, patrol endlessly and go on scouting missions everywhere, except in the direction of the damn place! She sees like one dirty sock and goes ‘We can’t move on if there’s laundry to be done!’. It’s beyond frustrating!” Dawn whined.

“You really don’t get it?” Merle answered with a sigh. “Think about it; ever since you girls heard about the prison, you’ve been acting like it’s a done deal. We’ve been chasing them all over the place since leaving Atlanta and you seem to think they are just sitting there, waiting for us and everything will be happily ever after. What if no one’s there?”

“So what? We just keep looking.”

“And there is a very real chance that Sophia’s mom died a long time ago. That woman was no fighter.”

Dawn starred at him.

“She was a mouse; a woman who spent the better part of her life as a punching bag for her asshole husband. All she ever did at the quarry was cooking and laundry. I never saw her even touch a weapon.”

“But the rest of the group would look out for her; protect her…”

Merle flipped his cigarette butt on the ground.

“Honey, you seem to forget that they are not used to fighting monsters on a daily basis. Sure, Daryl can look after himself, but the rest of them? Hell, even Andrew has a better chance at survival. Even if he still almost wets his pants every time a walker gets close… Ah, finally!”

They got up as Rona and Sophia approached them, but suddenly the two girls stopped, paused and turned around, sprinting of in the opposite direction.

“What the hell?” Merle starred after them.

“Hey, are you coming or what?” Dawn called out, already sitting in the car.

 

 

Andrea blinked. She was about to stretch her cramped limbs, but Michonne’s hiss stopped her.

“Don’t move!”

Then she noticed the walkers surrounding them.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” Andrea whispered.

“Just woke up myself,” Michonne whispered back.

As Andrea observed the walkers more closely, she realized they weren’t moving past them, but circling, like sharks. From her experience, once they had formed a crowd and were out in the open, the walkers tended to, well, walk. So why weren’t they?

Never saw them behaving like that.

“We’ve gotta get out of here. Hold on.” Andrea warned, inching forward ever so slowly and turned the ignition. Nothing happened. She tried again. Still nothing. Her eyes sought Michonne’s in the mirror.

“They’ll move on,” Michonne whispered, but for the first time since they met, Andrea saw fear in the other woman’s eyes.

Andrea turned her gaze back to the windshield and the walkers mingling outside. For now, they didn’t seemed to have noticed that there were living, breathing human bodies inside the car, but one noise, one move could change that. She tried to relax. Then the car alarm went off.

 

Merle cursed. By now he should be used to the girls, but that they could outrun a car? He barely managed to keep up. Soon it became obvious what had drawn their attention. Merle heard the shrill sound of a car alarm. Seconds later, the car parked in the middle of the road came into view, almost completely obscured by a mass of zombies. He slammed down the brake. Rona and Sophia were already busy taking down zombies and Dawn, without hesitating, joined them, leaving Merle with only one option. He knew Buffy would roast his balls over the campfire if anything happened to her sister, or any of the girls. There seemed to be four people in the car, as far as Merle could see from the distance. The one with the blond hair in the driver’s seat was moving around frantically, probably trying to deactivate the alarm.

“Shut of the damn alarm!” Merle shouted to no one in particular.

Rona removed her knife from a zombie’s skull, shoving the corpse away and tried to get closer to the car. Merle looked around and could already see more walkers heading their way from further down the road and across the fields, drawn by the noise. With Sophia providing cover, Rona reached the car and threw open the hood. She paused, momentarily confused and then simply started to tear out cables. The alarm stopped. Dawn drew back and started to shout to get the walker’s attention.

“Over here you stinky, undead douchbags!”

Some of the zombies moved away from the car. Dawn had her katana ready to greet them and Merle joined her. As the walkers crowding the car thinned, a dark skinned woman got out of the back seat. She made Dawn pause. The woman had a katana, just like her and she obviously knew how to use it. Could she be…? But there was something off about the way she moved, like she was injured or tired or both. Dawn quickly checked back on Merle and when she was sure he had things under control she moved over to give the woman cover. They had dispatched nearly all of the zombies when a blond woman emerged from the car, clutching a knife. She looked around and then simply froze when she spotted Merle.

“Merle?”

At the sound of her voice, Merle dropped the zombie he had just impaled and looked up.

“Hey Blondie! Long time not seen,” he called out with a wide grin, thoroughly enjoying the look of horror on her face.

The woman looked like she was about to faint. “We thought…”

“Sorry to interrupt the reunion,” Rona chimed in, “but I’m seeing dead people and they’re coming this way.”

 

She had to keep it together if they wanted to get out of this alive, but it was too much. She’d never thought to see Merle Dixon again, but here he was.

“Maggie?”

Andrea snapped back to reality. Glenn had chosen the worst moment to come around. One of the teenage girls, a tall brunette, tried to get him out of the car, but he fought her, desperately calling for Maggie. The girl stepped to the side and let Andrea take over.

“Glenn? It’s me, Andrea. Remember me?”

“Andrea? How…? Where’s Maggie? Is she ok?”

He was getting agitated again, so Andrea took hold of his hands.

“Listen Glenn, Maggie is…unconscious, but she’s going to be ok, you both will, but you have to trust me. We have to get out of here, there are walkers everywhere!”

Glenn calmed down and Andrea nodded to the brunette. Together, they managed to get Glenn out of the car and towards the pick-up. Michonne was already in the back with Maggie, which surprised Andrea. She’d never thought Michonne would willingly join up with strangers after what happened in Woodbury.

“Oh, by the way, I’m Dawn,” the brunette introduced herself as they helped up Glenn.

Merle was already behind the wheel when they got in, but two girls were still fighting the walkers heading their way.

“Hey, all on board, we’re moving out!” Merle hollered.

Andrea was still trying to figure out how Merle ended up with a bunch of teenage girls. One of them was so tiny, she was still as child! Andrea’s mind came up with some rather unpleasant ideas, but she quickly clamped down on those. Sure, Merle was bad news, but…? Dawn straightened up and let out a shrill whistle, getting the girls attention. They ran towards the car, gracefully dodging walkers. The black girl got into the passenger side and as soon as the little one had climbed up, Dawn turned to them.

“Hold on” she said, banged her fist on the driver’s cabin and Merle speed off.

By now, they were swarmed by walkers. Andrea was still puzzled by their unusual behavior. Looking back, she saw the car had already disappeared under a mass of dead bodies. Even without the noise from the alarm it seemed to attract them. Like a magnet, Andrea thought. When she focused back on the road ahead her heart nearly stopped at the sight. The road was filled with walkers, a mass of snapping jaws and grabbing hands, and they were heading towards them. Merle just kept going, making no attempt to evade them. Unfazed, Dawn got up to a half-crouching position and raised her katana, looking at Andrea and Michonne.

“Get down and secure your friends; this will be one hell of a ride!” she advised before positioning herself at the side of the truck bed.

Andrea immediately did as she was told, making sure she had a good grip on Glenn, quickly explaining to him what was going on. Michonne hesitated, but then followed suit, pushing Maggie down and wrapping an arm around her.

Dawn’s warning had been an understatement. As soon as the pick-up hit the first walkers, it slowed down and started to jump and lurch violently. Andrea held on for dear life and tried to keep Glenn, who had his face scrunched up in pain, from being tossed around. They were slow enough for walkers to make a grab for them, but Dawn cut them down, while holding on to the car with one hand. Andrea had thought the younger girl would take cover too, but instead she was mirroring Dawn’s position on the opposite side. Worse, she was standing upright, not holding on to anything. A tiny girl in oversized cargo pants, strawberry blonde hair peeking out from underneath a green bandana and holding a sword in her hands. She seemed to have no problems to keep her balance, despite the car’s movements and took down walkers with practiced ease. The car’s speed increased, suggesting the herd was thinning, but then they hit something that made the whole car jump. A slimy liquid, mixed with little pieces of decaying tissue rained down on them. Andrea ducked her head.

“Ewww!” Dawn and the other girl screamed.

The pick-up veered violently one last time and Andrea could hear Merle cursing loudly up front. They zipped past a few straggling walkers, but the road ahead was clear. They had made it.

 

“I’m sure the shock will wear off soon,” Dr. Stevens said uneasily as he closed his bag. The Governor, a clean bandage covering his right eye, was still muttering incoherently.

Sensing Dr. Stevens’s discomfort, Amy quickly escorted him to the door. Outside, he handed her two packages.

“You can give him up to three of the painkillers daily and the other one is an antibiotic; one every morning and evening for two weeks. I cleaned the wound thoroughly, but I don’t want to risk infection, that could be fatal. It was a close call; if the glass had gone deeper he might have sustained brain injury.”

“A horrible thought. No wonder he’s in such a state. To be attacked like this, in your home, a place you felt safe, even now…I still feel terrible for bringing them here.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Amy. Nobody could have expected something like this. You were just trying to do the right thing by offering these women help. Granted, Michonne was a bit strange, but I would have never expected Andrea… I guess you can’t trust anyone anymore.”

Amy nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’ll never make that mistake again.”

Dr. Stevens squeezed her arm. “Don’t worry; I’m sure he will recover quickly, but you might want to make some kind of announcement. There are quite a number of nervous people waiting outside.”

“Just tell them he’s going to be alright and that I will be out shortly, I just want to make sure he’s comfortable.”

When she returned to the Governor’s bedroom he was sitting on the edge of the bed.

“What are you doing? Dr. Stevens told you to rest. If you move around it might start to bleed again…”

The look in his eye made her stop.

“It’s your fault”, he said.

Amy paused. Careful now, she thought.

“Yes, I messed up”, she admitted, kneeling down in front of him,” and I’m prepared to take full responsibility.” She looked up at him. Philip hadn’t been the most stable person when they met, but now he seemed to barley cling on to the last shred of sanity. “Tell me what you want and I’ll do it.”

His jaw clenched. “Find them. I want you to hunt them down and find them. I don’t give a fuck what happens to Andrea and those other two; kill them, throw them in the pits, I don’t care. But I want Michonne. I want that bitch alive and in one piece and then I’ll make her pay.”

“I will”, Amy promised.

The Governor’s bravado suddenly crumbled and he broke down, sobbing again. Amy hugged him, stroking his hair and whispered a spell. He went limp in her arms. She put him to bed and covered him with a blanket. He would sleep for several hours, enough time for her to deal with this mess.

She poured herself a glass of water and sat down at the kitchen table. She needed a plan. First, damage control. Dr. Stevens mentioned that people were gathered outside, nervous and neglecting their duties. Sloppy security had played a huge part in this fiasco. Michonne had been able to walk around unsupervised and see things she wasn’t supposed to. She had managed to return and sneak in unnoticed. Amy understood why Michonne came back for Andrea, but why did they take the prisoners along? It didn’t make sense; the guy had looked like he couldn’t even stand on his own and the woman was essentially a vegetable after she had been done with her. They would be a burden, slowing them down considerably, so why going through the trouble of freeing them? Hell, they killed that looser Greg to get them! Not for the first time Amy wished she had been more thorough with Maggie. Her mental defenses had been impressive, but with a bit more time and effort she would have gotten all the answers. Maybe there was a connection; maybe they belonged to the same group? It was a possibility.

Amy glanced at the bed room door. She hoped the Governor would get his act together; he had been useful. Nobody would have taken orders from a twenty something woman. He may be borderline insane, but he was still a natural leader and they had been a good team. It would be a pity if she had to get rid of him, especially as she had no suitable replacement. Amy finished the water and got up. There was no need to make a decision yet.

When Amy stepped outside, there was a crowd gathered on the street. A small crowd, but still too large for Amy’s taste. I wonder if there’s actually anyone left on the wall, she wondered, better get this over with. She noticed Martinez, Stan and Shumpert lining up behind her in an obvious display of loyalty. With a serious expression, fitting the occasion, she took a step forward and looked at each and everyone’s face, letting the silence stretch. When all the attention was on her, she began.

“We have been betrayed. We have been attacked.” She paused. “I’m sure you’ve already heard what happened, but I want to make sure you know the truth, not rumors. We found two women while on a run, Andrea and Michonne. Andrea was sick, so we brought them here; we offered medical help and safety. Michonne broke the rules of this community, rules that we all agreed on. We provided her with supplies and let her go, allowing Andrea to stay. Later that day we encountered two people, a man and a woman, while on a run. They attacked without provocation, but we managed to overwhelm them. They had indicated that they were part of a larger group and I made the mistake of brining them back here instead of questioning them and leaving them out where we found them. I did so, because I was concerned for our safety. They threatened to attack us, so I wanted to find out more. Sadly, we didn’t get much information. Later that night Michonne came back and, with Andrea’s assistance, helped the prisoners to escape. We are now certain that they had been working together, to gather information about our resources and defense. They killed one of us and almost killed the man who worked hard to build this community. We will not tolerate this. They will not bring us down.” What a load of bullshit, but they’re eating it right up. “They will have to face justice for what they did!”

Satisfied, Amy watched the crowd disperse. Nothing better for the community spirit than the old us-versus-them. She turned to the men waiting behind her.

“Stan? What happened to Greg’s body?”

Stan shrugged. “No idea.”

“Find out; the guy gave his life for us and deserves a proper burial. You’re in charge while I’m out.” Stan gave a curt nod. “Martinez, I want a search party, ready to leave in five minutes”, Amy ordered.

 

Andrea loosened her grip on Glenn, but didn’t have the energy to get up yet. There was something sticky and foul smelling splattered all over her back and she was glad the car had shielded her from the worst. She raised her head to check on Glenn, who seemed to be alright and looked at Michonne, who was more or less lying on top of Maggie. A wordless nod told her they were ok too.

“Damn it, Merle, did you have to run over a bloater?” Dawn complained loudly.

“Sorry, next time I’ll stop and take my sweet time before deciding!” Merle shot back.

Andrea just couldn’t get her head around running into Merle Dixon again. Everyone had thought he was dead, including Daryl. How did he manage to survive? Then she remembered the …thing on his right arm. Had he cut off his hand somehow to get away? And how did he end up with these girls? Did he take a page out of Charles Manson’s book and gathered a following of impressionable teenagers?

“Ugh, the bloated ones are the worst, like some kind of icky water bomb,” the younger girl muttered.

Andrea’s breath caught and she could feel Glenn tense up. It was impossible. The voice…but then the girl had been quiet most of the time, so maybe it was just her imagination. She moved into a sitting position and really looked at the kid for the first time. The girl didn’t notice; she was trying to wipe of the walker goo.

She had grown and her face had changed, no longer the face of a child, but there was no mistake, it was her.

“Sophia?” Andrea asked hesitantly.

The girl’s head snapped up and her eyes widened.

“Andrea?”

Before she had a chance to answer, Andrea was knocked back by Sophia launching herself at her.

“Oh my God, we found you!” she squealed, laughing and crying at the same time as she hugged Andrea. Then she pulled back, an anxious expression on her face.

“Mom?” she asked in small voice.

The word was like bucket of cold water. Andrea had no idea if Carol even survived the farm.

“Sophia? Is that really you? Don’t worry kid; you mom’s alive. She’s been with us since we lost you on the highway,” Glenn said, wincing, as he tried to sit up. “What happened to you? We’ve been searching everywhere for you; Daryl stayed out for days looking for you, but even he couldn’t find you. We would still be at the farm and searching for you, if that damn herd hadn’t shown up…”

“Yeah, that’s when I got separated from the group,” Andrea chimed in.

“You heard that, Merle? Daryl’s ok!” Sophia shouted.

“See? Told you; expected nothing less of my baby brother!” Merle chuckled. 

“So, what happened to you?” Andrea addressed Sophia. “Rick said he told you to stay put while he got rid of the walkers and when he got back you were gone.”

“Got chased by a walker and then I couldn’t find my way back. I tried to keep save by sleeping up in the trees, but then I fell and broke my arm. It was pretty bad when they found me…” she trailed off. “What about you?”

Andrea shrugged. “We ended up on a farm after the highway. Things happened and a herd turned up and we had to run for our lives. Got separated from the group and I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for Michonne.” She nodded towards the other woman, who had moved to a sitting position unnoticed and was silently watching, leaning against the driver’s cabin.

“Ok,” Dawn interrupted. “I get that you’re eager to catch up, but maybe we should wait until we get back to camp, so you don’t have to start all over again. I’m sure everyone will have loads of questions, especially Chao-Ahn, when she’s trying to figure out what’s wrong with her.”

“Her? You mean Maggie? What’s wrong with her? You told me she was just knocked out?” Glenn asked accusingly.

Andrea took a deep breath.

“She’s not exactly unconscious; it’s more like some kind of shock. It’s like she’s sleepwalking.” Glenn bristled and she put her hand on his arm to calm him. “She’s been like that since we got you out of Woodbury.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We were in the middle of a fight and I had to say something to get you out of there.”

“Don’t worry,” Sophia declared, “Chao-Ahn and Willow will figure it out. I mean, they fixed my broken arm, didn’t they?”

Andrea looked at Maggie’s wide eyes and shivered. Somehow she had a feeling that this would be much more difficult than a broken arm.


End file.
